carving wood

Most likely, more wood has been carved by simple people seeking their own simple moments
than by all the professional carpenters in history....

The flow of seeking

Sometimes the shape first envisioned upon a piece of wood becomes transformed by a moment's glimpse of something there deep within the grain - a flow that takes my eyes into a new direction, where there is nothing planned, and nothing to be planned, as shades of potential begin to emerge as metal and skin seek shape upon the wood...

Leaves

I heard an interesting statement the other day: "There are about six million leaves on an average large oak tree..."

Standing dead

I rode my bicycle far back down the trails, eventually saw a slope, set the bike down, started walking towards the setting sun and found a standing dead tree with an amazing branch very high up. I tried to push the tree over; it leaned into its neighboring tree. I'll leave it now to the strong autumn winds.

softness, again

Even wood from the same tree hints of very different flows of grain, softness, inner design... And inner design can never really be anticipated. Within one branch I discovered a swirl of shadowed grain that eventually formed itself around the handle of a spoon - it led me to discover its shape as if holding my hand as we walked through a magical space of exploring our sense of time together...

softness

A piece of pine cut green is now enfolding its own shape within a softness of the wood "seasoning in process", what a nice sense of calm movement to find in the curves of the spoon's surfaces...

Oak, pine

A piece of oak, a piece of pine. Both evolving towards spoons. That piece of oak really seems to have an attitude... But can define some seriously sharp edges upon the winding bends of its shape... The pine, on the other hand, is tending towards soft flows of curves, an ease within its acquiescence...

Oak

It was like a dream... A forest of oak trees with permission to cut what I wanted... I wandered through the branch-strewn spaces... A particular juncture caught my eye... A journey began...

jade

There is an ease with which the extreme hardness of a piece of jade settles into pine. Time taken to sand and buff towards a scintillating smoothness of the blending of connection of two completely different worlds. It is possible. Patience and understanding, foolishness and a steadfast gaze...

electricity

I have used power tools. Ripping and tearing grains to shreds. Fast and furious, but as a sanding disk forms shadow within the dust, it can actually be a quite beautiful experience. What is time.

chisels

Discovering chisels, I was at first hesitant to explore beyond a safe, controlled movement upon simple surfaces. But I slowly began acknowledging the blade's urge towards more depth. In the concave spaces of spoons I began to recognize a pattern of smoothness against stress, of grain flow and points where the chisel could move against the grain and still move smoothly, while at other points there remains a tension that all but disallows the chisel to pass over those specific areas. I feel like I'm in a boat in new waters, learning to navigate upon a surface whose personality changes with the course of the tides, the boat's bow urging itself through the pliant clefts of sea...

Mud

The mud's woven dampness within the last lingering snow deep in the forest, tracks from the logging machines leaving ribbons in their waste. Piles of branches scattered like Easter eggs, I dig in.

Crystal

"Someday you're goona see that crystal for just what it is - a rock."