Our weather is finally warming up. The nights are no longer going below 10° and our daytime highs are slowly and steadily rising. It is more pleasant to spend long hours puttering in the garage. Woodburning in my space in our basement becomes an escape from the heat outside.
Spring is often a time for gift giving. The end of the school year or the end of a season for an activity often prompts gift giving to a teacher or leader. Our bell choir season ended a few weeks ago with a fundraising concert. I decided to burn a token of appreciation piece for our conductor. I love the colours that came out in this wood.
This year, June was also a time for weddings. I have gotten into the habit of doing some sort of wood burning gift for my niece’s and nephew’s weddings. I had asked my niece, Emily, for the scripture readings for their ceremony and this is the gift I made for them. A 2X4 cross with scrap pieces glued on. The traits mentioned in the words of Colossians 3 burned onto it. The photo doesn’t do it justice.
We drove to Watrous SK two weeks ago for their wedding.
The next day, my friend Jana got married again in a small ceremony in Saskatoon.
She has been a big supporter of my burning from the beginning so I decided to make her and Loran a gift as well.
While I have been busy burning, Chris has been busy creating with stained glass again.
This piece is made with a chunk of wood from the barn he helped take down last year.
He torched and scraped it. It sits about 18” high. He has a number of similar pieces of wood and plans to make a few more in different colours of glass.
Next he chose a piece of driftwood. Chris’s parents had collected a bunch of driftwood and brought us a boxful. It was a bit challenging cutting the holes in the driftwood with the scroll saw but he was able to do it. The glass has a pink and green iridescence that comes out when the sun shines through it.
The last project he worked on is my favourite. With the base, this one is 46” tall. The wood is a piece of maple he acquired in Fort McMurray. There are slight pinky red hues that come out in the wood. Here is a photo I got of it catching the sun before he added the base.
And a photo after he added the base.
While working in the garage or basement is much more comfortable, we have discovered that we can’t leave the garage door open for any length of time or our resident squirrel comes in. He has scared me half to death a couple of times when I didn’t expect him to be there. This last visit, he ate the remaining shelled and halved peanuts I had for the chickadees then went into. Chris’s wood storage shelf to hide. The wood camouflaged him well.
I am not sure where our creative spirits will take us next. Chris is gearing up to do more spray paint art but we can’t be doing any wood cutting or sanding while he is painting. I want to make a few things for the garden like a scarecrow and some noise makers to keep the birds away from the haskaps so that will be my next focus. It is definitely easier to be creative when you don’t have to worry about your hands getting too cold.
Love the driftwood designs – beautiful.
You both have your specialty talents. We all have talent, maybe not all in the same aspect, God wants us to find what it is and use it well. The word ‘puttering’ immediately brought your grandma to mind, a word she would slip in our conversations.