Week 4 - A Walk Along the Fence Line

I was originally going to work on a different project this week; however, after a trip with the family to San Antonio and some unexpected inspiration, I'm changing things up and listening to the creative spirits.

While we were on our weekend trip my brother, brother-in-law and I spent some time out at the ranch doing a little hunting. As I was walking out of the woods, I crossed over an old fence line. The barbed wire was removed over ten years ago, but the old fence posts remained standing. I've crossed over, through and around that fence more times than I can remember, but this time it got me thinking. I remember walking with my grandfather, PawPaw, mending that same fence when I was a child. He, like the fence, has passed, but my memory of walking behind him carrying a bucket of fence staples and a hammer came rushing back in full color and clarity. It was as vivid this weekend as it was that day when I was a child. On top of other memories that came flooding in, I love the organic beauty of moss and weathered cedar posts from an aesthetic.  

So after pulling two posts out of the ground and bringing them back to the shop, I cut them down and chucked them up on the lathe.  My plan and resulting outcome was to turn a few "weed vases". Inspired by mending fences with my grandfather and gathering wildflowers for my mom, which always seemed to be placed in a Big Red soda bottle.

As I was cutting into the cedar posts, right beneath the weathered exterior, the wood was as if it had just been cut down. The grain was as clear and the cedar smell just as crisp and clean as the day the tree was cut down and the posts placed in the ground. The dark, strappy bark has since gone replaced with a grey patina and moss. A display of true grit. A display of my grandfather.

Week 3 - The Big Burl

My favorite tool in the shop is the lathe. For the past eighteen years or so I've been using an old Delta "hobby" lathe. It has, without a doubt, served me very well. I've spent countless hours making tons of dust, shavings, and pretty cool creations. A few months ago I splurged and purchased, in the words of my South African friends, a "proper" lathe. I could go into tons of detail on all of its technical specs, but the long of the short is that it's much bigger and just about better in every way.

Up until this week, it's been sitting in the shop mocking me. Ok, let me explain. Last week I turned the legs for “The Phoenix" table using my new prized possession, but that is something I could have easily done on the old lathe. I have not had a project that would allow me to take it for a real test drive. Until now! This week I turned my largest bowl to date, which measures about 19" in diameter. 

The burl came from a diseased tree that my brother and I cut down at the family ranch earlier this year. This bowl is from one of the larger burls and coincidentally is hollow. Basically it was already more or less in the shape of a bowl. The bowl is a straightforward design and shape. And while it might sound cliché, I let the wood turn itself so to speak, create its own personality. As with many burls, the graining and figure is amazing and intricate. I'm leaving it rustic with very little fussing over the perfect finish. It’s after all what the burl would want.

Week 2 - The Phoenix

Several months ago my daughter and I were returning from picking up breakfast tacos and drove past a pile of wood left on the curb for bulk trash pickup.  For those who know me, not much turns my head more than a stack of logs.  Shocking (insert wife).  Friends, one truck and six hands later, two beaut tree trunks happened upon my shop. 

From there I chainsawed them to approximate thickness and then flattened them with a newly built router plane.  After that it was hand tools and chopping out a few butterfly joints to keep the cracks form opening up any further.  Then on to the lathe to turn some simple tapered legs.  The resulting table is a little expected but I personally love the simplicity.  The slab speaks for itself with the charming peek a boo from the legs. 

Another reason I love working with wood, just as this table exemplifies, is that while the tree may be dead the spirit of the wood is not.  It continues to live.  It shifts, twists, expands and contracts as it ages and the seasons change.  The tree's character thrives through creation. 

Week 1 - Happy Birthday

I just celebrated my birthday last week.  In the days leading up to it, I had a chance to reflect on things done and those not yet accomplished.  And while it was not a milestone birthday, it was a big enough number (one of those numbers that when you were a kid you would have said "man, you are old") that it caught my attention and got me thinking. 

In my creative journey I have more ideas I want to create and expose to the world than it seems I have time to make them materialize.  Let me rephrase that I have the time but seem to be lacking the commitment to actually finish.  I'm sure my friends and family are tired of hearing me say what I'm going to start to work on next.  Well`at least I know that I am.  So I'm embarking on a personal journey to prove to myself that I can actually do this.  What is this?  That I can create, produce and finish a completed piece in a reasonable amount of time.  So my challenge to myself is to produce a piece a week for the next year.  52 weeks in a year - 52 completed pieces. 

Here is my piece for week one.  It might be a little bit of a cheat since I have been working on this since April.  But, hey, it is finished and I am so proud of the workmanship and even the time it took as it inspired my challenge.  

Petite table made out of walnut perched on a whimsical bird's foot.  Fitting as this quote resonates. 

"if things start happening, don't worry, don't stew, just go right along and you'll start happening too." -Dr. Seuss

Week 1

Week 1