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.
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.
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.)
I did a little painting last week at the beach. Here's a quick watercolor wash of Emma, our nine-year-old Boston terrier.
One of our bee hives decided to swarm the other day and ended up in the very top of our next door neighbor's magnolia tree. I thought that that was it (goodbye bees). But the next afternoon, for some reason they moved to a limb closer to the ground and I was able to capture them by nudging them into a cardboard box. As luck would have it, a friend came over who was getting a hive ready for some bees he was going to buy. Together, we took the bees to his hive and they moved right in!
My great-nephew, Noah, called up the other day and commissioned me to do this Eagle walking stick. I made it from the limb of a Mulberry tree that grew in my parents' yard – Noah's great-grandparents' yard – in Drewryville, Virginia, so it has special meaning for both of us.
Here's a few better quality photos of the octopus cane, finished a few weeks ago
A couple of weeks ago we got two new honeybee starter hives. Here I'm transferring them to their new (boxes) homes in our garden. Good luck with this cold weather, bees.
This is a watercolor done a few months back (when it was warm around here) of a friend's house.
This octopus was carved from a limb of a hickory tree in the north Alabama mountains.
With its tail repair and new finish complete, this walking stick is headed back to it's owner in Virginia.
Here are a few ornaments inspired by photos in Terry Murray's book "Faces on Places". (See Link)
I just ran across this photo of my studio, taken last spring. Man, I'm ready for spring!
I made this dolphin walking stick awhile back. But the tail had broken, so it was time for a face lift - or in this case a tail lift. Luckily I still had a piece of pecan wood from the same tree to work with. After a little sanding and new finish, it will be ready for another go.
I made this maple wood bowl for my mother-in-law, Beth, for Christmas. I think she did a masterful job with the dried arrangement.
