Don't Over Think It

I read this qoute the other day and I find it really rings home for me:

Let me throw every image away and say the simplest things that are true: I exist, I am aware, I create. These are the three qualities of essence that permeate the universe.

I think I feel this most when I'm lost in my thoughts in my wood studio:

I'm existing in the moment, I'm aware of the present and I'm creating something beautiful from wood.

To Use Rare Woods or Not

Why do we enjoy exotic woods? Exotic woods have beautiful colorful tones and shades. From the red tones of dajara, the darker richness of cocobolo, the amazing grain patterns of lacewood, the heavy oil texture of lignum vitae, the deep color of purpleheart to the light and dark contrast of zebrawood. They have a rich deep look and feel to them. They impart a wonderful natural and “exotic” kind of stir when handled or gazed upon. Exotic wood can be turned into beautiful pieces of art such as jewelry and fine furniture. No wonder we enjoy exotic woods!

Because we enjoy these fine woods, we need to take care that we don’t enjoy them to extinction. This could happen by not paying attention to how and where our woods are harvested. If a particular type of wood is in such a great demand for its beauty it could easily be harvested at a rate faster than it can be replaced.

Then there’s always that domino effect, you know how one thing leads to another? Take the forest and the animals no longer have a home to thrive in. Guess we could put them in a zoo. Take the forest and we’ve destroyed countless undiscovered plant medicines.

I look around me and see so many sources of wood that can be repurposed instead of wasted.

Let’s be part of the solution, not part of the problem. I choose not to use any woods that are on the endangered list, how about you?

Farm Cat

At one time I lived in a small community called Walton, Oregon. It was for the most part an old time General Store with a Post Office inside. I lived 3 ½ miles up a narrow valley on a dirt road called Nelson Mountain Road, in an old one-room school house I owned. No indoor plumbing and my drinking water came from a faucet in the backyard that fed out of a natural artisan underground spring. The water was fantastic!

Behind my yard ran the Chickahominy Creek. Past that was an old homestead apple orchard. Beyond the orchard and up a steep hillside were miles of coastal mountain range.

One early evening I decided I needed a couple of items from the General Store. I hopped on my old single speed Schwinn bicycle and rode off. Picked up my items, checked my post office box and chatted a few minutes with the storekeeper. It was dusk on the way back but I still had enough light to see once my night vision kicked in. I prided myself on my excellent night vision. Once in the narrow part of the valley I noticed it was getting real dark. There was no moon up yet. I could hear the Coyote’s howling in the hills. It was very peaceful. I knew the winding dirt road like the back of my hand. Except when I looked down I realized I couldn’t see the back of my hands.

Not wanting to ride off the road and spend the night in a patch of skunk cabbage I walked the last mile and a half home.

Ok, where am I going with this and who is Farm Cat?
He was a tabby cat and mostly white with some black splotches. He lived most of his life in and out of the woods at the school house. Farm Cat would stay gone for 2 or 3 days at a time hunting and just being a cat. I fed him on a ledge in the barn. Friends would come to visit who had dogs. If Farm Cat were coming home then, he would sit across the road on a steep hill and yell for me until I hiked up to him. I would have to put him on my shoulder, carry him down the hill and put him up on “his” ledge to eat so dogs couldn’t bother him. He kept the mice out of the house so I had no problem doing this favor for him.

Early one day I decided to pitch my tent at the far end of the orchard to spend the night and watch the deer in the orchard. I waded across the creek and took the deer path to the end of the orchard and put my tent up. My intent was to go back up in the late afternoon and get settled in. Friends dropped by and stayed most of the day. By the time I was headed up to my tent it was dark and the moon had not risen yet. Once up on the trail I actually could not see my hand in front of my face! I decided to turn around and head back down to the house as it was too dark to find my tent when I noticed the faintest white blur at my feet. I realized it was Farm Cat! There was just enough starlight to reflect off his fur. He would walk forward about 3 feet and stop until I caught up. He did this all the way to my tent. This was out of the normal for him. This made me think of the connection between nature and us in a whole new way.

Christkindl Market Akron, Ohio

Well it's turning towards winter again in Ohio. That's good and bad in a sense. Bad that it's going be freezing cold for several months. I will have to shovel my sidewalks and scrape my car windows.

Good in the sense that 80 Germans come to downtown Akron the day after Thanksgiving and set up a traditional Christkindal Market for 6 weeks. Good in the sense that a group of highly skilled traditional woodcarvers are among them! They are from the Erzgebirge Mountain region of East Germany. This is a world famous woodcarving region.

I'm excited to see them again and watch them work. Wish I spoke German.

Etsy Selling On Line

Barbe Beaty, a very successful Artisan from Njia Studios on Etsy explained to me how to sell my handmade Wood Finery on Etsy.

I'm very excited about Etsy as an on line vehicle for offering my Wood Finery. Etsy is so non-eBay!

Thank you Barbe!

Trees Breathe

It's often been said by environmentalist and proven by scientist that trees are the lungs of our planet.

As living breathing human beings we have a unique dependency on trees. Trees have the ability to "breathe in" gases we can't breathe well and convert them into this lovely combination of gases called oxygen. It's amazing how much of our planets oxygen supply is actually created in the forests of South America.

You've just got to love those trees!