mortise and tenonitus

This piece of heart pine is part of a more-than-200-year-old timber from an old house in Virginia that I'm using for a larger sculpture. My dad had gotten the timbers to use in renovating and repairing his own house in Drewryville. Notice the roman numerals on the side, used by the carpenters to identify the timber for placement in the original house.

Gift horse

I made this piece with koa wood as a birthday gift for a friend of ours. It's mounted on a small block of sandstone.

Nostrildamus

This walking stick was carved from dogwood. The finish is clear lacquer and wax.

Working with friends can get squirrelly

A while back Catherine and I helped our friend, Mike, publish a story he had created for his children about a squirrel named Charlie and his friends. We enlisted the help of another friend, the amazingly talented Walt Taylor, to illustrate it. For Christmas, I carved Charlie from a piece of cypress wood Mike had. It now stands in his family's garden next to a grand gazebo.

Gate keeper

Emma just doing her job.

Arbor day

Catherine and Henry taking a break yesterday, just after we finished our new garden arbor. Next week we'll be planting some jasmine vines to grow up around it. (I built it from parts that used to be an arbor seat that was where the Folly is now.)

Leapin' lizard

This walking stick is made from oak

Po po Poe

A watercolor wash of Poe on a really bad hair day.

Emma

I did a little painting last week at the beach. Here's a quick watercolor wash of Emma, our nine-year-old Boston terrier.

I been to da poe house

They say Edgar Allen Poe lived on a island in South Carolina when he was a young man in the army, and that he lived in this little house near the beach, where we vacationed last week. And although we didn't see any ravens during our stay, who are we to say he didn't?