Family gifts........

June 23, Monday
This lidded box is made from 100 year old American chestnut. It was part of a wall stud in the family home of Todd's wife, Jennifer- you can still see lath nail holes in it. Now its a piece of memory in Virginia.

This was the first turned piece I made when I finally got back to turning in 2006. It's a piece of Oregon myrtle wood which I picked up while beach combing on the southern Oregon coast. Carol and I were camping there and were strolling the beach. I found this piece of drift wood in the remains of a beach fire. I took it home and it just laid around for a few years as a nice piece of drift wood. Then when I got my woodworking machines, I was looking for a piece of wood to turn, so I tried the weathered piece of drift wood. It's not my best work, but it is my first. It turned out to be Oregon myrtle wood and I called it "Earth, Sea and Fire". I dreamed it grew in Oregon, was washed down a river and into the Pacific. It was washed up on the beach and someone took it for a beach fire. It has a natural edge and charred marks where the fire burnt through checks in the dried wood. I don't know why, but I thought of my pregnant niece, Megan, while I was turning it and always thought of the bowl sitting next to her changing table where she could store diaper pins. Of course, diaper pins are a thing of the past, but those thoughts prompted me to give it to Megan and her daughter, Lauren, this year and it now resides in Washington, DC.