Peekachello Art

On the first of the year, a friend gave me a couple chunks of chokecherry and a chunk of Gambel oak. I rough-turned the chokecherry into bowls in the first week of January, and finished turning this one in February.

After making a couple bedside lamps, I wanted to make a version more suitable as a nightlight. This is the result, a lamp in which the LEDs shine through the resin, illuminating it from within. The light is a yellow glow that turns red farther down into the resin. Not perfect, because the hole in the resin for the batteries is slightly (less than a millimeter) too small, so the battery case is protruding a bit, but it’s usable, and I can always fix it later.

This spring we went back to Minnesota to visit friends. One of the people we visited was Bonnie’s cousin Ben, who had visited us earlier in the year in their huge RV. Ben set me up with a pickup load of lumber from MN to bring home, since lumber prices have gotten kinda crazy. All Ben wanted for payment was a bench he and his wife Angie could set at the foot of their bed to sit on while putting on or taking off their socks and shoes.

I’ve been a supporter of the Altai Project for a while. I think they’ve been doing good stuff for a part of the world very few people know about. Note: as of summer 2024, the Altai Project is no more, but the Eurasian Wildlife and Peoples is doing the same sort of work, just not in Russia.

Recently, the remote fob for my truck cracked. The plastic case lasted about 14 years, and gave out pretty catastrophically. So I took it apart and looked at how the case was constructed and figured I could make one out of wood that would probably outlast the truck, which is getting some rust spots from its time in Minnesota.

Every month, the Santa Fe Reporter has a drawing with a prize or prizes given to Friends of the Santa Fe Reporter (those who donate to help keep the paper running). I donate regularly, and often enter the drawings, but haven’t been a winner so far. But I decided it would be nice to give something, so I emailed Julie Ann Grimm and asked if she’d be interested in a pen and pencil set for a future giveaway at the Reporter. She thought that would be a great idea, and we tentatively settled on next January for when they’ll be given away.

I finished the juniper pen and pencil set a week ago, and just now finished this black acrylic pen with box.

Every month, the Santa Fe Reporter has a drawing with a prize or prizes given to Friends of the Santa Fe Reporter (those who donate to help keep the paper running). I donate regularly, and often enter the drawings, but haven’t been a winner so far. But I decided it would be nice to give something, so I emailed Julie Ann Grimm and asked if she’d be interested in a pen and pencil set for a future giveaway at the Reporter. She thought that would be a great idea, and we tentatively settled on next January for when they’ll be given away.

I spent part of August slowly carving a mouse. I wasn’t especially happy with it, but it was too good to throw away, so I gave the mouse a leather tail and stood him on a piece of cholla cane I mounted to a chunk of wood that I had quickly carved round-ish.

Over the past few months, I’ve been working on this plate. It’s made from sweet gum that a friend sent me. I started with a piece that was roughly 12 inches square (300mm) by 3 inches thick (75mm). I finished with a plate that is just under 12 inches in diameter, and about an inch thick, and which isn’t quite flat. Sweet gum moves a lot as it dries, and I didn’t account for this movement in my initial turning.

A friend of mine in Virginia sent me some wood recently, which included a blank of “definitely not mulberry,” which he had picked up somewhere. It had pretty grain, but he hasn’t been turning a lot of bowls lately, so he passed it along to me.