Wood. It has a good feel to it. “Warmth” is the word a lot of people use. I have a friend that prefers the metal/glass look, almost Spartan (at least he USED to). He doesn’t like the look of wood furniture.
I like the metal/glass look myself but wood just has something that metal can’t. There’s no life in metal. No spirit. Wood has a thousand stories, even if we can’t hear them. From the tree, the build, the life and the disposal of whatever it is we create, wood bears these scars and is more interesting for it.
I never thought too much about it before but I’ve been helping out on a woodworking project this week. We (everyone) are building an altar for the festival. Most of what I’ve been working on is the inlay. It has so many different woods in it, some I never heard of. Lace wood, purpleheart, yellowheart, rosewood, a really cool orange one that I don’t remember the name of (Paduch I think?). I ordered a piece of holly and a piece of bobinga and they fit in nicely. It’s such a good feeling to cut, shape and sand the wood all with a picture in your head of where it will go in the final project. It’s almost like you are working with the earth and tree that supplied the wood. It’s very soothing.
It’s so much nicer to work on projects when you have all the right tools. Another thing that makes it easier is working with someone that has the knowledge on how to USE all these cool tools as well as the patience to show a novice like me how to use them.
I’m really looking forward to seeing this finalized. There is a spirit in this project. We’ve all added our sweat and energy to the wood’s spirit and it has become… well, it has become. It is alive. Something steel, glass and iron can’t do (unless Stephen King gets involved).
Leave a Reply