I started a few Christmas gifts during the Twelve Days, as is my bad habit. You should know that I also have the nasty habit of stealing good ideas from friends, and this year dawned no differently. Do you know how many bathmats I've sewn appliques on in the past few years? It's laughable. So many bathmats!
I may be moving on, though. The same friend who introduced me to bathmat applique has now introduced me to decorating wooden things with a wood-burning pen. And by "introduce," I actually mean, "She posted something cool she made, and now I'm shamelessly stealing the idea."
I'm clumsy and discovered the initial pencil sketch is a lot easier than the actual wood-burning, but I'm still finding it a bit addictive. Maybe the weird chemical coating on these bamboo boards that melted and wafted into my lungs as I worked, though, has something to do with that. After I started in ignorance, I looked stuff up on the internet to discover that bamboo is not the optimal wood for wood-burning, nor, I assume, are chemicals the optimal fumes to breathe. Ah, well.
My poor mother-in-law gets another hen item from me, but it's her own fault for having a theme in her kitchen.
Kind of funny-looking spoons for my sister-in-law, who also is probably sick of me giving her penguins, but, again, I blame her for a lifetime of loving the funny creatures. (I have no one but myself to blame for the funny spoons.)
A salmon cutting board for my brother and sister-in-law in Alaska, because, well, Alaska. When you can see something in real life, catch it fresh from the water, and pan-fry it in your kitchen an hour later, why wouldn't you also want it etched into a cutting board?
And, then, instead of going ahead and burning the more graphically-styled mountain design I planned to put on Luke and Jae-Ryong's cutting board, I first asked them what they would like...which turned out to be a pig!
Easy peasy piggy pie.
Psst. And finally, because I'm a loyal person, I blundered ahead and sewed animals on another bathmat. Bathmats are harder to abandon than they have any right to be. For Bryan and Sarah, love birds of a sort...
I once wood-burned a widjiwat poem into a table. It was so successful I never did it again.
ReplyDeleteYours are amazing!
ReplyDeleteI can't decide if I like the pig better or the hen. Your so-called 'doodles' seem to personality. Which is why you aren't a doodler, you are an artist.
Matt made another cutting board and I bought a bunch of wooden spoons/utenstils to woodburn as gifts for others for Christmas but managed only to get the cutting board done. Wonder why? ;-) I also intended to woodburn a few woodslice ornaments for people. I guess there will be woodburning in my future as well.
But it is fun, isn't it? And pretty satisfying at the end! So I look forward to it.
I also have enjoyed wood burning. You've done a really good job. Doing more of it is on my list of "Things I will do more of when I have more free time."
ReplyDeleteSarah,
ReplyDeleteYou're like Michelangelo picking up a paintbrush for the first time ever and setting to work on the Sistine Chapel! Don't you know you're supposed to start off small and save your masterpiece for later?!
Rebecca,
A few days before Christmas when I bought those chemical-slathered cutting boards, I also stocked up on wooden utensils, coasters, and added them to my pile of wood slices. Told you I was a copycat. :) And I need to make my own cutting boards! That's the ticket...
I fondly remain,
The Idea-swiping Doodler-Snitch
Rundy,
In my experience, one never has more free time than one has now. There are things I put off earlier in life because there wasn't time to fit them in, but I now look back on those days and see huge spaces that no longer exist. (For the record, I didn't completely learn my lesson and have a whole list of things that I want to learn and do once the children are grown, if the Lord allows me to live to be an old woman with fair enough health. I guess that's two too many "ifs," huh?)