This weeks project started out to be a really nice size bowl but the direction changed and now it's my version of a milking stool. So what happened was... I was lucky enough to find a nice piece of wood from a recently fallen tree all the while thinking about the bowl it would become. However, after putting it on the lathe and working on it for a little while the stress in the wood started freeing up and these rather unsettling stress cracks began to open. So I put it aside and waited for some inspiration and indication of what the wood wanted to become.
You see there are always these competing forces in the workshop. What you want to make, what nature gives you and what the wood wants to become. Some times they align and sometimes they are at odds with each-other. In the beginning this was one of the most frustrating things for me to understand. Now I have come to accept this and see how beautiful it really is. It's not unlike life or people... who we are, who we want to become and what we are willing to do to change.
"When you believe that anything outside of yourself will change the quality of your life, you are like the kitten seeing its reflection in the mirror thinking that there are two cats in the room."
The milking stool is a stool that almost always had three legs and was... wait for it... used to sit on while milking cows. This one still has the cracks and character, like wrinkles, that tell a story and that I find beautiful. I did not try to hide or cover them up as they are a part of the history and life of the tree. Although I'm not exactly happy with the stain that I put on the legs and will more than likely paint them in the future but for now I'm happy with the form and function.
"The problem is not the problem; the problem is your attitude about the problem."