Wood Working

The Journey to Working Wood

The art of wood working is very gratifying. During these difficult times with all of this extra time we have because of covid, I have picked up wood working and wood carving starting from just the excess wood from the trimming of trees and having only one idea in mind.

A few years ago I was given a cross and it had been blessed by the priest from my youth group. I wore this cross day in day out and never took it off. It was like a lucky charm, something that helped me get through both the nice days and the more difficult ones. But one day something happened. I lost it. I lost my cross while I was swimming in the sea. And since that day I've never found something that quite had that deep meaningful faith to it. Until recently, when I thought: “What if I could make my own? What if I could take a piece of pittosporum wood and make my own cross out of it?”

So the journey began, to making this cross out of a thick branch. It took me a whole week. I used saws, files, my pocketknife, sandpaper, and an electric sander to reduce the size of the wood. Obviously, with those kinds of tools, you sometimes get cut and I did cut the tips of my fingers a few times. At the end of a long week of work I had made my cross.  

 From there I realised this creativity was bringing out all the fantastic ideas I never thought I could make and there I was making things. My next project was longer and I went to extreme measures to make it. I wanted to make a chess piece. But not any chess piece. I wanted to make the missing knight for my chess set. Once again I got to work grinding down the material and flattening the bottom of the piece, carving in the lines and details last. When I say extreme measures, I mean that I took all my filing tools to school as well as my pocketknife to be able to make as much progress as possible. I was working day and night, at home, at school, in some classes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After all that I finished the wood working and decided to polish and paint it. It was ready to be used. 

I then started making stamps and made my first one with a question mark on the bottom but it was stolen from me, taken away by the universe. So I decided to make something more challenging and more difficult: an octopus. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is when I was introduced to a friend of my parents who works wood for his job and is a highly renowned artist. He agreed to give me lessons and since I started with him I have done multiple projects. I am currently making handles for knives and even cutlery. 

I truly hope that all of you can pluck up your courage and start on an adventure like mine and show what you can create to the world. Be brave and follow your dreams, don't give up on them because they are important!