Found Gold

This week I am working on a salad set for my Aunt. It has taken me a while to get started. I have been looking for good wood for salad sets from my wood stash, but it has been hard to find. Most all of the prime pieces of black walnut wood I received from Joe and Eryn has been used already. I do have wood from the lumbar yard, but it is harder to be creative with it. The lumber yard rightly focuses on selling good straight grained wood. It is easier to be more creative with wood that has a bit more character.

On Monday morning I went back to my workroom to see what I could find. I have four large drawers full of wood, and wood all over the room. I figured I had to have something that would work! I have looked it over so often lately, that I didn’t think it was likely. I was actually just hoping for one good large piece of walnut that I could use to make two spoons out of, similar to the salad set made for Joe and Erin.

Well, after digging in one of the harder to reach drawers, I was so excited to find two pieces of wood that belonged to each other! Two pieces of the same branch, and large enough for me to be creative with.

I feel like I struck gold! They haven’t been shaped yet, so I am roughing them out with a knife, which will take a lot longer than when I do it with the band saw. I wanted to be able to study the wood well to find out how best to use it creatively.