SPICE(S) of Life

When I made this I wasn’t going to post it because it isn’t furniture and it isn’t art. It’s a tool that I use with my clients made into a 3-d form using wood (and leather).

I realized the other day (for the umpteenth time in my life) that when I try to copy someone it rarely feels like my best and it also rarely feels fulfilling to me. So, following my heart and who I am, here is something that I did/ will continue to do with my woodworking. ...

The SPICES of Life represents one description of a “whole person” – the social, physical, intellectual, creative, emotional, and spiritual elements of being all need to be stretched, challenged, utilized, etc in order to walk one’s path true to self. When one element is weak or denied or just left to be mediocre it is like a flat wheel making the ride really rough.

The creation:
1. visualizing how I use the tool, I layed out a design that allowed me to manipulation each component
2. using a leftover piece of wood (the circle) from the heart box, I used this as my template, cut a base to fit and glued them together and then sanded it.
3. using the template I cut another circle and divided into 6 wedges which I then sanded.
4. I then used my woodburner to label the pieces and voila. I was finished.
5. but then I thought, why not make a leather pouch to carry this in, adding to the “zen” feeling of the tool, so I cut a piece of leather, using a raw edge for the flap and encorporating “flaws” in the leather into the pouch as symbolic elements
6. I then stitched the sides, leaving the flap without a fastener (keeping to the zenlike feel, in my opinion
7. I then used my leather burner (woodburner but at a lower temperature) to label the pouch.

I used the tool with one of my clients last week and she really liked having the visual and used the pieces throughout our session to express herself and to better understand her life at this moment.

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)