green woodworking

Wood Fire

Lift Earth Rise , compositional sketch on guitar

small eyes wonder

A five year old little girl with a pension for the aesthetics of random objects

while carving walnut to look like earth

of the golden dust of osage

he discovers eggs make lovely lanterns

walk out to find these things from my Goldsworthy protégée

the horse rolls out, making its provision and fuel

Quercus rubra holds Quercus alba for a shave

showing how much learning is found when a draw knife pulls through the grain

and much beauty in the life of trees

yielding four legs from the rugged giant of civilization (that is Mr. Q. Alba)

back to the door. routing tongues and tenons, applying coiled energy to transferred pattern

every fit feels like a miracle

and the two become one

“Onforan” becoming a door, framing a passage

embers stirring embers

into the incense of fearless youth

a seed within a seed, life and healing travel in a mysterious shell

later, the arrangement has changed, she’s at it again

meanwhile, nature imitates nature

round violently became flat, then eases its way into concavity

green tips taken by the hoof-shod

the edges wound-up by the steel-shod

summits of pollen-yellow splendor arise from the dust

in a moment, history and beauty merge and glow

while the broad axe composes its song

as it was written in fire

as it was written in wood

Carved Bowls in Cottonwood and Birch

Carving bowls helps me to live on the land

Finished Three Legged Post-Oak Stools

Here are some pictures of the finished three legged stools in post oak. The finish is danish oil and wax.

The will of a 3-legged stool

The stool declared loudly by snapping every black walnut rung I made- that it must be white oak throughout. OK, says I, you win.

Still much work to be done, however, as of yet the most complete sense of a stool that has pretty much dictated itself, and made me sweat in the process, and I still have to build his hopefully less mercurial brother.

Below: shaping the underside of the seat.

Post-Oak Stool Legs

Below are some photographs from the process of the rough-shaping and bending (green) of post-oak, which is a variety of white oak, for use as legs in a pair of 3-legged stools -hopefully.

First the log was cut and split. This one has quite a of twist, which I am hoping to integrate into the design of the stools.

Next the halves are split into quarters and then into eighths with froe at the brake (no photos), then the eighths were trimmed with the hatchet.

After trimming the pieces are shaped down with drawknife at the horse.

After this rough shaping each piece was place in a form and bent using clamps, the clamps were removed after a few days and were replaced with wire. The legs will remain in the forms until they are dry and I am ready to shape them to final size.