Here’s the second in a series of burnt cedar frames that I am making for mounting art tiles.
It’s designed to hold a 6” x 6” ceramic art tile.
I’ll make about twenty of these next week.

I used Japanese saws, chisels and hand tools.
The burnt wood was scrubbed and detailed with a variety of fine wire brushes made of stainless steel, brass and nylon.

Three of the photos show frame before it was burnt, scrubbed and painted.

The finish is resin-modified shellac with natural earth pigments added for color, i.e. shellac paint.
A red oxide color was used to give a Japanese lacquer-like finish.
The burnt late-wood ridges show through the top finish as black.

Here’s a quick photo of an Arts & Crafts framing technique that I am using for Art Tiles.

This frame is made of cedar and is assembled with slotted half-lap joints.
All the cuts were made with Japanese hand tools.
A little hand sanding was used where needed.

The cedar was burnt and scrubbed with wire brushes.
The finish is resin modified shellac.

I am also using Southern Yellow Pine for this series.

Note: This art tile is a casting of a carving made by a brillant local sculptor named David Golden.
This is an authorized copy that he made and glazed.

Here’s a twig sign that I made for an upcoming art show.

The letters and trim are made from hand-split pawpaw wood. I split the pawpaw twigs with a thin knife and a mallet. I smooth the flat side of the split twigs with a miniature hand plane by holding the plane upside down in my left hand, and then running the twig over the sole of the plane with my right hand. This is a barrel maker’s trick that I learned from a cooper in Berea, Kentucky. The twigs are attached with animal glue and brads. The button decorations in the border trim are cross sections of pawpaw twigs. I use Japanese hand saws to cut and fit the twigs.

The letter “O” was made from a slice of a hollow sweet gum branch that came down during our visit from Hurricane Ike last year. I chiseled out the rotted core. The wood was dried and stabilized in a microwave oven. This also will kill any lingering infestations.

The backboard is a piece of salvaged plywood, about 3/4” thick and cut to a 24” by 24” square. I painted the board with homemade milk-paint that was pigmented with natural yellow ochre. After the sign was complete, I sealed it with a diluted tung oil wash. When the tung oil was completely cured, I applied a top coat of high-solids polyurethane oil varnish.

I design my twig signs on grid paper at full scale. I transfer the design to the backboard with a scratch awl. Other than twigs, I also use vines, roots, bark and found objects for my rustic fusion signs.

Here’s a great find for my driftwood crafting. I found this piece on the banks of the Ohio River in Augusta, Kentucky in front of the Rosemary Clooney House museum. I could barely fit it in to my tiny Hyundai Accent hatchback, but it looked too interesting to pass on.

When I got it home, I pressure cleaned it then chiseled away any damaged pieces. That’s when things got interesting. The chiseled edges revealed a beautiful piece of gnarly crotch walnut. I scraped and sanded a little section then applied some diluted tung oil to preview what it might look like when finished – stunning!

The piece measures about 5ft long and is about 2ft at its widest.

The bungee cords in the picture are there to help keep a hairline crack from widening. I’ll deal with that after the piece dries and cures.

I’m probably going to keep the piece as is and finish as a natural art object. I’ll make the final decision after it cures. For now, it is a big nugget of gold that shall sleep in by drying shed until I awaken this natural beauty. When this sleeper wakes I hope my muses guide me well.

Here’s an Octagon Vase made from found wood – red oak.
I used the new Gorilla Super Glue (CA glue) to hold it together.
There are a couple of hidden screws in the construction.

The studs are brass escutcheon pins.
I marked off the locations of the pins on blue painters tape, then pre-drilled the holes through the tape.
I used a light Warrington hammer to tap in the brass pins.

The finish is a liming wax that I made from my bees wax furniture polish and added natural red ochre for a little red blush.

I used all hand tools including Japanese-style saws, pull planes, an old edging plane (Western) and cabinet scrappers . No sand paper was used.

Now, back to rustic…

Take care.

Here’s a picture (poor quality) of some of my rustic handled tools.
I generally use seasoned hickory twigs with the bark left on.
Twigs are chosen that feel good in the hand and that match the intended use of the tool.
For files and rasps,I drill a hole for the tool then usually just tap it in with a mallet.
For socket tools, like chisels, hammers, hatchets, froes, and adzes; I hand carve the end of the twig to fit the tool.

I oil the bark with diluted tung oil.
The lanyards are made from parachute cord.
This allows me to hang my tools on pegs – rustic pegs of course.

Customers actually buy my rustic handled tools, especially hammers and garden tools.

The sycamore log is part of a collection recently provided to me by Hurricane Ike.

Kentuckians love their walking sticks. Most popular, are the ones made a little on the stout side and adorned with brass handles. I craft mine with traditional materials such as white oak shafts with brass horse hame tips (from draft horse collars) as handles.

My lovely and vivacious assistant, Miss Glue-Rilla, models two of my special Kentucky walking sticks. The one on the left (her right) is a vine twisted sassafras sapling topped with a brass horse hame tip. The one on the right (her left) is a gnarly piece of ironwood (hornbeam) topped with a brass and crystal claw-and-ball foot from a piano stool. I added a burnt lattice pattern to the top of the ironwood stick and decorated it with brass escutcheon pins.

Both sticks were oil-cured with a tung oil and mineral spirits mixture, sealed with Zinsser SealCoat shellac, then varnished with Zar Ultra Exterior varnish.

The handles were secured with Gorilla Glue. It’s the perfect glue for bonding brass to wood. Not only does the glue stick the two different substrates together, but it also expands slightly to fill in any voids between the brass castings and the wood. Previously, I used epoxy cement, but the Gorilla Glue doesn’t require mixing and it is ready when I am. Besides the expansion qualities of the Gorilla Glue results in a tighter fitting.

One question remains.

Miss Glue-Rilla wants to know, “Who’s the cute guy on the Gorilla Glue label?”

Hi Y’All:

Here’s a poplar bark vase that I created for an upcoming arts & crafts show.

The base is a piece of old barn wood (pine) that is about 6/4 thick.
I cut it in a hexagonal shape.
I dyed it with walnut husk dye made by boiling walnut husks in rain water with a little borax.
The edge trim is split pawpaw wood attached with panel nails and hide glue.

The vase measures about 7” in diameter and about 11” tall.
I split the original bark with a hooked knife then peeled it off the log with wedges and by jamming my fingers between the bark and the log.
The bark has been pared down to about half its original thickness.
I drilled a paired column of holes with a square awl then used leather lacing to stitch it shut.

The ends of the leather lacing are strung with hair pipes and pony beads.

The bark and the wood were treated with diluted tung oil, sealed with shellac, and then varnished.

BTW, the pictures were taken with the vase resting on one of my work benches.
This one has a top made from split white pine and the legs are sycamore.
All of the wood came trees downed by wind.
I work mostly outside, so I frequently soak my benches with left over oils and varnishes to help preserve them.

Hi Y’All:

Here’s an example of a simple Bark Trug I make for the garden.

The bark is from a poplar tree that blew down during a storm.

After I remove the bark, I pare down the thickness with a draw knife.
Then I wash it with a dilute solution of borax, a natural detergent and insecticide.
I insert some twigs to hold the shape, then wrap it with a couple of bungee cords.

After about two months of drying, I scrape the bark down to the desired final thickness.
I soak the bark with a tung oil and solvent blend (2:1) and let it “cure” for about a week.
Then I seal the bark with 2 lb. cut shellac.
At this point, I add the twig end pieces (dryed maple) and attach with bronze ring-shank nails.
I pre-drill the nail holes with a square awl.

The handle is a piece of wild Kentucky Wisteria vine that has been preserved with my tung oil cure.
I attach it with ringed panel nails.
The entire piece is finished with a home-blended spar varnish.

The decorations are leather thongs with hair pipes and beads.

The pictures show both the top and bottom of this trug.
It is resting on a poplar log from the same tree.

Yellow poplar bark is a favorite building material among both Native and Appalachian folks.
I’ve seen roof shakes (shingles) made from poplar bark that will last 50 years.

I use poplar bark to make trugs, dry vases, baskets and as rustic furniture decoration.

Time to pick some tomatoes.

Hi Y’All:

Here’s a typical Appalachian-style rustic tray.
It’s made from 50+ year-old peach crates that where found in a barn near Maysville, Kentucky.
I have about 20 of these crates. The ends were hand stenciled and the colors are still vibrant.

The peach crate ends are attached to a piece of resawn barn wood.

The edge decoration is hand split pawpaw wood and cut pawpaw medallions.
They are attached with brads and hide glue.

The finish is a blend of tung oil, Zar Exterior Varnish, and solvent.

The tray is sitting on an old campaign-style tray stand made of mahogany.

Mint Juleps anyone?