The process most often starts with a rescue

My favorite creations have almost always started as pieces of wood or iron that have been relegated to the scrap heap, or firewood pile. A local lumber mill is a good source for interesting and unique pieces that have been removed from saw logs before being processed into usable material. Branches and weird growths are best trimmed from the logs before entering the mill. These scraps are then gathered for use as firewood

Timber harvested from the forest will sometimes have hollow sections that have little or no production value, and will therefore be removed before entering the mill. Regular visits to the pile that results from this process has produced many pieces that will eventually end up as the foundation for a new creation. This firewood pile happens to be familiar to me, as it is located on my family's lumber mill, and has offered up many treasures over the years.

It is also common to find discarded segments from areas where a large branch had broken away from the main trunk of the tree, as the growth patterns from these sections are unlikely to produce usable lumber. At the same time, these same growth patterns can produce highly figured graining, and a great start for the creative process. Last week, I came across one of these segments, cut from a red oak saw log. After slicing off only the section containing the figured graining, I will set it aside for air drying, and the chance to incorporate the piece into a future collection.

Possibly similar to this existing lamp, which started as a piece cut from a similar section of a black cherry saw log several years ago