It’s lumber season at our place on Whidbey Island — winter tides and storms carry tons of driftwood to the back yard. Mostly firs that have fallen off the high banks or escaped from log booms, but lots of Alder, Maple, Cedar and old construction timbers mix it up.
I’ve got stacks of this stuff slowly drying out in every corner of the property — each piece has character and history and basically shouts what kind of project it wants to be. Bowls, gates, benches, boxes, vases, ornaments, wall art, clocks, lamps, tables … you get the idea.
There’s just something really neat about physical “stuff” that connects with memories, places, times and people. So I always try to be on the lookout for ways to create things with meaning for other folks as well. I just finished two of these projects, one for each of my kids.
1. Catamount Center, Colorado
My son spent many years at the Catamount Center, an environmental education center in the mountains outside of Woodland Park. He was a student there, then a fellow, and eventually the Director of Education. He’s moved back to Washington now but rescued a few logs from the Catamount firewood pile before he left. I think it’s Limber Pine or Blue Spruce, but hard to be sure.
C requested a side table — the light color of the wood fit well with his (ok, his girlfriend’s) modern vibe but the soft wood definitely needed some help to serve in that capacity. Let’s go.
First job was to cut a few slabs — lots of ways to do this (and some cool rigs online), but my go-to is simply to draw out some guidelines and freestyle it with the chainsaw. They’re going to need cleaning up anyways, so perfection at this stage isn’t worth the trouble.
Next up, rough planing to shape and then a bunch of dry time. It is hard to overstate how much this stage tests my patience; even at just a couple of inches thick, it took weeks in the humid PNW for the moisture content to drop enough to move on. More planing to take out the inevitable warps, and a lot of sanding.
The table is made up of two slabs joined with dowels along a flat cut. I don’t love the seam here but did my best. Someday I’m going to break down and get a jointer; I’m sure L won’t mind if we have to park the car outside the garage! This left two live edges, and I cut the others at about twenty degrees. More sanding.
Finally ready for some tabletop epoxy. This stuff is really nice for a side table — no coasters needed and plenty hard enough to protect and stabilize that soft pine. I even tucked a little picture of Susie (C’s dog) up at Catamount into the corner. My go-to adhesive cork along the bottom and some black pin legs (levelling four legs is always a joy) and it was good go to. A nice memory of a place that shaped a lot of C’s life through his early twenties!
2. Burbank Bungalow, CA
Burbank is full of cool little homes built during the studio era — a similar feel to the craftsman neighborhoods north of Seattle (minus the hills). My daughter bought a place down there a couple of years ago, and she is the proudest homeowner you’ve ever met.
Unfortunately, some necessary gas line work killed a couple of beautiful old lemon trees along the side of her house, and before replacing them with seedlings she saved a few branches for me. I wasn’t sure what to do with these at first, as they were a bit too small for a vase or bowl. I tried turning some tulips but wasn’t a fan of the outcome.
The lemon wood was really, really beautiful, both the stripey bark and the brilliant yellow inside. After playing around a bit more, I decided to try my hand at carving three little birds for a display piece. I’m not much of a 3D artist, but with the help of a pattern (hat tip North Idaho Carver) and my scroll saw they came out pretty ok!
The idea here is to start with a rectangular block (milled out on the band saw) and then transfer “top down” and “side view” patterns onto two sides. Scroll cut one of these patterns, tape the block back together, turn 90 degrees and cut the second one. This leaves a rough-cut version of the bird which can be carved and sanded to final shape. I tweaked sizes and shapes on each one to make an interesting set — kind of in love with this process!
A half-cut of another branch made a great base — hopefully the polyurethane I applied will keep the bark attached! I just used neutral paste wax on the birds themselves, which did a nice job deepening that awesome yellow.
It makes me super-happy to think of both of these projects living with my kids and reminding them of their respective journeys. Wood is such an amazing material — beautiful in life and beyond. But that’s enough sappy stuff for one post. Until next time!