The Craftiest Workshop

My husband was first to start to create and build out of wood. He would use leftover wood from basement renovations, pallets, discounted wood and even wood he found on the side of the road. Purchased wood is really expensive these days so, unless you are doing a custom job and someone else is paying, you should maximize the use of each piece and save the scrap.

As a result of ”saving the scrap” we have a few boxes brimming with small wood pieces right now. The majority of wood in there is spruce but there are also pieces of oak, maple, birch, cherry, cedar and even some olive.

My sister had mentioned a few months back that she really likes hearts but she hadn’t seen me make very many heart projects.
After that conversation I made the two teal hearts that now hang in my kitchen on the fireplace barn wood.

I also made some smaller ornament hearts some of which I gave to my sister. These were made from cracked wood slices.

I also decided to make a heart from the pieces of scrap wood in the garage.

I traced one of the teal hearts to get the outline.

I am someone who enjoys balance in art. I need things to be geometrically even.

I cut out different pieces of scrap to fit each piece that I traced out. Each type was not the some thickness but I didn’t want them to be. I did sand down each piece by hand until the edges were softer.

I found a small piece of plywood left in our shed by the previous owner. I placed and traced the same heart onto the plywood then proceeded to glue (Weldbond) each piece onto the plywood.

At this point I probably should have taken a picture but, at the time, I wasn’t even sure I would finish it. I liked how the heart looked but the bright plywood background somehow made it look tacky. I thought about just cutting out the heart with the band saw and attaching a hanging clip to it. I set it aside until about a week ago.

I asked my mother in-law while she was visiting what she thought I should do with it. I wanted someone to agree that it needed something more and maybe suggest what that was. She suggested paint that complemented one of the darker shades of wood in the heart.

I unpacked and sorted two shoe boxes of acrylic paint that she had brought to our house courtesy of her sister, my husband’s aunt. In amongst those paints I found a nice bronze colour and a shade of brown that I thought would work.

I had found some examples of how others have painted plywood by painting the patterning in the wood. I started with that same idea using white. I then alternated the other two colours in between the white sections.

I wasn’t happy with the colour balance, finding the right side much busier than the left. I decided to add a few more coloured sections.

Here is a view showing how the pieces are different thicknesses.

I will attach a hanging clip in the back and figure out a spot to hang it.

Although it wasn’t intentional, it was mentioned to me that the heart resembles an owl or an elephant.
I see an eagle myself.
What do you see?