Czech Yamadori

    I live in a place where you can find many abandoned orchards.  Sad.  The local producer was not able or willing to compete with the imported product and sold it to developers.  After all these locations are close to Prague so you can understand.  It was at the end of the 90 ties.  Since then - some of the land of orchards  was covered with blocks of flats ( crazy - this is supposed to be country land ) and many others are still there with overgrown trees.   Bad for the country, but something good for me.  I do there to get some nice tasting apples ( nothing to compare with the product engineered for the maximum profit ) and sometimes also to have some wood.   A few years ago I was able to collect there an interesting  V shaped trunk.    I have started to work on it at the end of the last year and the carving work has been  done in the early days of Jan.  Since then I am working on the fini...

A few year ago I managed to collect this interesting stump.  Did my best to dry it out slowly to avoid cracks.  And luckily this was the case.   Well, it is so easy to say but apart from some experience you still need a sizeable piece of luck to achieve that.   And I should  also mention something else:  PATIENCE.  Quite a challenge for me.  At the time of the collection I have realised that this piece of wood has a great potential.  And as my heart beats for root stands my mind has immediately started to work on the image.  So you are ready to transfer your vision into the reality but hey! You still need to wait 2-3 years at least  to  have the wood ready for the transformation.  Pain. Finally,  at the end of the last December the all of us were ready to go.   I mean the stump, me and the straight grinder&burrs.    Taking the stump in my hands and looking at it ( my mind was still fi...

I admire the stands made by Jerry Braswell and Al Kepler.  First it was just an incidental click on interesting web but gradually it has developed into focused search and follow up.  I consider wood as the best material to deal with so it was just a matter of time to get to the point when I have decided  to build few tables - just to see if I can do something to please my soul.   This is the very first one.  Not very complicated design but nice to test some new methods. Wood: Dark stained Beech. Very common timber but this one has very nice flames.  Top coat: Tung oil with some resin.  I was a bit nervous using a dye but it came out quite nice.   ( Thanks to Bob Flexner and his great book: Understanding ..... )                                Dimensions: 21  x  16 x 5 cm 8,...