Friday, August 3, 2012

Celebrate Life with Wood

As I live and breathe, yes its wood! Living, breathing, expanding and contracting. Treat it with respect and it will last a lifetime. A gift to be treasured. A reason for celebration.

When you see the pieces that we display at our different venues or here on our site you may only see a finished piece for your home. For me (yes it's Debbie) I see what started out as a hunk of wood that has become a bowl, spoon or holiday ornament. For Steve, the life events of the wood are a bit more involved.
One way or another the wood makes it to the studio and is placed in the row and marked with the name of the tree. A piece can be chosen from the row depending on what the next project might be that day. What or whom has inspired the artist. In the case of this pictured spoon it was one of our good friends. I have dubbed the spoon "Elaine" after telling us what kind of handle design she liked so much. Good thoughts are offered so that the wood will cooperate with the chisels from start to finish. Not every small bowl started out that way in the design phase. It may have began as a huge salad bowl for 4 but due to cracks (again living and breathing) nasty edges and the likes there of it may end up becoming a salad bowl for 1 instead. Then there is the finishing. Deciding what type of finish to use, which may be determined by what the use of the piece will be and then all of that sanding in between rubbing on the finish. Of course there is more than one coat of finish on it. Yes all of this done by hand and with the cooperation of Mother Nature. Hot sticky, muggy days are not good days to put on finish. Piece finally completed…hours, days, months or years later. Yes sometimes it takes years to complete a piece.

#740 "Elaine" Walnut Spoon
SOLD
And so when you purchase or admire a piece from us you are touching a bit of Steve's heart and soul, sweat, tears and smiles. It is truly an original piece with a story attached to it. If you doubt it then just ask us the story behind the piece that you want and we can surly tell you it's tale from birth.
Until next we meet…choose the right branch

2 comments:

  1. awwww! I will have to let Elaine read this one when she gets home. =)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Choose the right branch... a metaphor for life, there, Debbie!

    ReplyDelete