MEANDERINGS

This is where I plan to put those woodworking projects that I really have to show off somewhere, but which also really don't fit anywhere else on the page.  I won't bore folks with the living room project or the fence project, but anything else is fair game! ;-)

This is actually where we began our foray into the world of woodworking!

For our daughter's 16th b-day, the wife and I set her up with her own saltwater fish tank.

And since we couldn't find anything on the market to match her whitewashed furniture, we decided to make it ourselves.

Trust me when I say that cabinet grade furniture should NOT be your first woodworking project...

but, all in all, I'd say it came out pretty good!

Next, my dad asked if I could do something for their church, St Timothy's Episcopal.

They had an old, mismatched set of stands for the Palm leaves on Palm Sunday.

Since I had already begun my explorations of the art of intarsia, the above is what I came up with.

Then I learned that the church my mom had moved to had burned down on CHRISTmas Eve and they had lost most everything.

Hence, I made another pair of Palm Stands for St Margaret's Episcopal Church.

Again, the main wood is western red cedar and the crosses are each two pieces of purpleheart wood.

I next received a commission from a friend to make a sign for her business from her pre-existing logo.

The sign is 6 feet wide and 22 inches tall...and the wood around the lettering and logo was removed so that they would stand

out approximately 1 inch from the rest of the wood.

I then had the dubious honor of building a casket for one of my Department's K-9's.

For this, I recruited my good friend and fellow woodworking enthusiast Bob, who helped keep me on the right path.  Without Bob's assistance, this labor of love would have taken much longer than the 4 days I had.  Bob also donated the beautiful strip of South American Walnut to accent the lid of the pine box.

The professional finish was donated by the Parrish Family of

Oak Heirlooms

 and Wood Finishers Depot.

These guys are AMAZING!  Not only did they apply a quality professional-grade finish overnight, but they also performed a veritable MIRACLE!

Look closely at the bottom-left corner of the picture above.  See the knot in the wood?  Well, the night before, that "knot" was a jagged gouge at least 3/8 inch deep which covered most of that top corner of the lid after I had inadvertently super-glued the top to a steel table while repairing a stress fracture in the casket lid!!!  That "knot" doesn't exist!  But you wouldn't know it if I hadn't told you.

If you have a piece of furniture that needs refurbishing, or needs custom built for that matter, these are your guys!

Last but not least...so far, anyway...is a sign I made for my Aunt Paula's door at her assisted living apartments.

The sign is oak, the cross is purpleheart and the dove is maple.  The letters are inset cut with a router and then colored.

Aunt Paula's husband Willie, rest his soul, is my grandmother's only brother and the inspiration behind my woodworking.

My Uncle Willie was a master craftsman of the highest order when it came to wood...

a gift the Good Lord had given him, and on which He got a healthy return on His investment!

Four signs I submitted on a bid request from a children's shoe company

I never heard back from them, so I guess I didn't get the job, but it was a fun and challenging project!

A couple of girls' bedroom signs

A Coffee Mug rack