Dreams and Inspirations

I've always been into drawing and painting.  Chad has always been the builder.  Sure, I have come up with ideas, and designs, and I help hold things sometimes.  I enjoy the sanding, but Chad says I get way too picky.  Just because I like sanding to 400 or 600 grit.  It makes a difference.  To me.  I can tell.  Anyhow, in starting a woodworking business, I'm trying to find my "spot".  So far, I'm in design, social media, wooden pendants, and some finishing.  But I'd like to do more.  Create more.  Art more.

Arting up the wood is often in contradiction to respecting the beauty of the wood itself, to me.  I'll be honest, there isn't a whole lot of inlay that I actually find tasteful.  I don't even like the look of a lot of dovetail or finger joints.  But before you get offended, you have to know that I don't buy shirts with words or pictures on them.  Prints of any sort are quite rare in my closet.  I'm basic to a fault.  My taste is so simple that it makes Mission Styled furniture look ornate.  Ah, but I like quality materials.  Natural materials.  Blindfold me and I can tell you if the piano keys are plastic or ivory.  As much as I'd like to incorporate my art into some heirloom pieces, I am simultaneously operating under the assumption that doing so will detract from the beauty that was there in the first place.

So, I began a little e-journey to challenge my preconceptions.  I would comb through Google's images until I found inlays, wood carvings and inspirations that I actually found beautiful.  When it comes to inlays, I still like them best on cribbage boards, hope chests, and jewelry boxes.  Ok, gun stocks, too.  But I found a few samples that caught my fancy.

Allison Elizabeth Taylor's RedRock

LeeFairStudio.com

RJonesWoodWorks.com

Still, the only thing I can envision actually wanting to do is a glorious set of double wooden doors on the front of my dream house some day.  Yeah, that's the ticket!  So, I suppose I'll need to practice.  I'll probably end up making a bunch of hot pads between now and then.

Then, I got thinking about wood carving.  One of the guys in #WoodChat on Twitter mentioned Tibetan or Indian (or something) wood carving that maintained balance and beauty and peace.  So, I started poking around...

 

I'm not entirely sure if the last one is carved of wood, but I'm figuring that anything that can be carved of stone can be carved of wood, too.  Anyhow, these really inspire me.  I'm excited.  I think I'm going to see what I can do with my Dremel.  Now, I know other woodworkers might consider that cheating.  But I'm figuring whoever carved the peacock above didn't have the awesome tools we have today, and could accuse the more authentic carver of the same thing.  I don't know.  It doesn't really matter.  What matters to me is to see something in my head, and put it in front of me.  

I have a feeling that Ana's going to have a pretty awesome double wide, fully steering wagon this summer.  Now, if I can just decide what to do...

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