The Craftiest Workshop

My husband and I are always on the lookout for different wood to make projects with. It could be wood for wood burning, wood for furniture or just wood for potential art projects.

When I heard that my In-laws were coming for a visit from Vancouver Island at the end of August, I asked if they could bring me some driftwood. They went for a drive to a nearby beach, took a walk and picked up some different pieces.

Thanks to them we now have a 2ft cube box of driftwood. After they left to go home and before the weather got too cold, I decided to give the wood a good cleaning.

I had been toying with the idea of buying a plastic kiddie pool to use outside for washing objects that I didn’t want to clean in my laundry sink. We went to Home Hardware and all their pools were on an end-of-season sale. We bought one large enough to soak the driftwood but small enough to be able to roll into our garden shed for winter storage. It can also be used as a wading pool for a dog on a hot day.

We filled the pool with water and added a good splash of bleach to hopefully kill off any little critters potentially hiding in the wood. We dumped in the box of wood. I didn’t think it looked very dirty at all but we wanted to clean it just in case.

We forgot how buoyant driftwood is so we came up with the idea to put cardboard over the pool and weigh it down with some rocks. This worked really well to keep the wood submerged.

A few hours later I came back and started to scrub the pieces. I laid an old plastic table cloth on the grass to place the wood as it was cleaned. It was a nice sunny day and I started early enough to maximize drying time.

Here is a before scrubbing and after scrubbing example. The wood was MUCH dirtier than I thought. After I scrubbed each piece, I rinsed it with garden hose before putting it out to dry.

After cleaning each piece front and back, this is what the water looked like.

When you see driftwood, it all looks the same greyish hue. As I was cleaning the wood, I could see how each piece actually has its own unique colour.

I presume these pieces are cedar as some lovely oranges came out after washing.

The constant barrage of the ocean surf shapes each piece forming unique creations.

After the wood was mostly dry on one side, I flipped them over to dry on the other. At sunset, I put the wood in our utility wagon and moved it to the garage to air dry for a few more days. The wood did go back to looking grey but I wonder if some of the colour would come out if coated with a clear finish.

There a few pieces that I think would be great as the base for the next copper tree that my husband makes. Here was his most recent one done on a piece of wood found on our property.

I plan to use a few of the flatter pieces and burn on them (with good ventilation and a mask of course). Maybe I will add some inspirational quotes and include a small sketch.

People seem to like incorporating driftwood into their home decor. The previous owners of our house incorporated driftwood pieces into the rock garden that we have on the west side of the house. This might be another option for a few of the pieces.

All wood is unique and can inspire creativity if you allow it. The possibilities for using the driftwood are endless. Now I just have to stand back and let the wood speak to me.