Odds and ends
Candle holders | Napkin rings | Boards
Hello! Today is a photo essay of some recent projects I’ve been working on.
I want to give a shout out and lots of gratitude to the very wonderful organization Springboard for the Arts, which (among the many other things they do to help artists make a go at making art) has a photo lab that I used. I’m trying to include fewer links in these newsletters, as research shows that it disrupts our ability to read and remember, but I’d highly recommend you check out Springboard for the Arts if you get the chance. They have a variety of resources for artists; though they’re Minnesota based, you might find things of interest even if you aren’t living in this state.
Below are my photos; I hope you enjoy and that the next couple of weeks find you connecting with great people and organizations in your local community. Local is where it’s all at. ❤️
Here are a couple of candle holders Dad and I made out of pieces of burl we’d saved. I really love the colors and markings throughout the wood.
Here’s another candle holder, this one’s out of Black Walnut. I used the technique I learned from Mark Laub to do the inlay with mother of pearl and silver, which I thought showed up nicely on the darker wood. I’m still working on my own drawing skills, so I used a fern design from Roshaan Ganief’s wonderful book, Simply Wood.
We made a few different kinds of napkin rings by gluing together some Red Oak, Black Walnut, and Cherry strips of wood.
And of course, cutting boards!
Dad and I created these boards from several chunks of Maple that he’d glued up some time ago. We ended up taking those pieces (which were around 3.5” square), cutting them in half, and gluing them together to form boards of varying sizes with just a few strips of Black Walnut to add some highlights.
This cutting board is made out of Birch and the wooden cheese knife is Cherry. I’ve made some of the knives out of Green Ash, but think I prefer cutting them out of Cherry, as the grain is easier to work with on this particular project.
These tree and bird images also come from Ganief’s book. I’ve often wondered if putting images of trees on things I’ve made out of wood is like a barbecue joint using an image of a pig eating at its restaurant.
I hope you get to enjoy making or doing some fun projects in the next couple of weeks!