"Steppin' Out"

Brought to you by: RusticWoodArt

When I talk of a piece that almost didn’t make it, well here is one that came close to becoming a wood burger in the belly of the Beast, one of my wood stoves. I was cutting for kindling when I cut this piece of wood and after the piece fell off my wood horse, I reached down to do a fast pick up and toss into the wood pile, when my eye connected with the wood. It was in that instant that I saw wood art and so over to the sacred other pile went an object of wood.

This is good example of how when I finish a piece, there is the fine sanded smooth surface combined with the remember me when from chain saw time. I try to always leave some point of reference on the wood that says, “this is where I come from” and so on the upper top you can still see the saw marks from the chain.

After carrying this piece into the barn where drying time took over, the wood sat as I worked on other projects. Occasionally I would look, stare and pick the wood up while trying to connect with what was there. Time passed just as I would scratch my head and move on. Often I will debark right away and then sometimes there is the wait and see. Spring time works best for me, as this is when I have found that the bark comes off the easiest combined with a bark spudder for popping the bark. This piece sat over time with the bark in place since I was trying to arrest the wood from further checking and splitting. One side note here is that I have found that by burying pieces of wood in sawdust I can also slow down the drying process, therefore there are the garbage cans in my barn where I bury a piece of wood with saw dust and just keep on adding layers of wood and saw dust. This works very good for me, as does putting smaller pieces of wood in brown paper bags and closing tight, just remember to forget the wood for a while.

Finally the time came and I saw a rough image of a figure in the wood, so I took to sitting before my wood at the vise and peeling bark to get a look at the wood. No clear image yet, but I have also found that if I will just work the piece, often times the image will come as I faithfully curl my curls.

Turning the piece over is when I really saw what was in the wood as I started working with spoons and gouges to bring out what was already there. My way of working the wood is to find the image that is already there and lying dormant within, just waiting to be released and is what I call finding the character and spirit of the wood. All that is required to work with wood in this way is the acquiring of an imagination which can not be bought or taught, but comes from sitting in silence and hearing the wind blowing through the tree tops….where the charge is heard, if you will, come up higher and ride with me. Finding the character and spirit that is in the wood is not manipulating the wood, but releasing what is already there.

This work of art is two pieces joined as one. Both are maple wood, which I then hand mortised into the base, to fit the top before setting with epoxy. All surfaces have been hand sanded up too #400 grit and then plenty of time was spent using steel wool and brass wire brushes to burnish the wood on the backside.

The top piece is finished in tung oil, cut with gum turps with a few drops of Japan dryer added to speed up the drying time and once again more hand sanding with steel wool. On the bottom piece of maple I choose to apply tung oil once again and then added four coats of shellac cut to a 1-1/2 pound cut, which after drying I buffed with steel wool. Next I applied two coats of varnish and let the piece sit in silence for a couple of days. Next I hand sanded the varnish down using #320 and #400 sandpaper and filled a couple of cracks on top of the base with wood putty which I tinted to a shade of red. Now I was ready for the finish coats of varnish of which there are three, followed by a buffing with #0000 steel wool. Can I say done, can you say ever done, ha, such is the curse of striving at perfection.

And so we now need a name, just as I went searching for a name and so the name came,....”Steppin’ Out”. When I show this piece, men will make jokes about it and women are drawn to it, in fact the women can’t keep their eyes or hands off of it. “Steppin’ Out” is what the wood said to me so I explain and is from where you stand and your point of view. Viewed from the front you see an image of…. and then you go to the backside where you see another imaged likeness as ‘steppin’ out’. Like I said, just how far are willing to let your imagination go?

Thank you.
Frank
RusticWoodArt

rusticwoodman@gmail.com
www.frank.wordpress.com

-- --frank, NH, http://frank.wordpress.com/