May 23

Pounce, Daniel D. Brown, PhD, 2021

“Pounce” – red fox wood intarsia built from chakte viga, mahogany, wenge, walnut, ebony, maple, holly, and basswood.

Downloadable templates for building your own version are now in my shop!

I grew up with red foxes on our property in Arkansas and have loved them ever since, seeing many over the years in NC and now PA. A family of them, including two new kits, live up the road in a nearby cemetery; they served as the impetus to create this piece, which I’ve had bouncing around in my head ever since I picked up this amazing orange wood.

Jan 25

Salty, Daniel D. Brown, Ph.D., 2021

“Salty”, Daniel D. Brown, Ph.D., 2021

Jumping spiders are my favorite spiders. They’re cute, they’re floofy, they’re incredibly observant, and their athletic abilities are astounding. They also dance to woo the ladies like I never could.

The name comes from their family name “Salticidae.”

All pieces cut on scrollsaw, in this case exclusively using my scrap wood collection. Species: maple (regular and curly), walnut, mesquite, ipe, katalox, ebony, holly, cherry, & rubber tree (reclaimed from a cheap old jewelry box).

The main image upon which this is roughly based is “Come Closer, Jumping Spider” by Diaz Gio (@godzaid@giochimitsu), who has some amazing photography and an art account).

Mar 06

Carved walnut seahorse

Walnut seahorse carved from an antique chair arm

Last summer I started this little carving from an antique walnut chair arm (2nd pic), given to me by my step-father-in-law @freetimemike. I had no plans when I started – it was just an excuse to whittle outside. Eventually I saw this shape inside it. Once it got cold, I threw it in a corner and got distracted. This past week I decided to finish it up. Most of it was carved by hand with @flexcut_tools knives, then finished with some @saburrtooth dremel burrs.

Aug 02

Snail carved from black locust

Snail hand-carved from black locust

After I finished @tamarynart’s table this week, I wanted a little project I could do while sitting on the porch and enjoying the weather with Bandit. So I walked in the shop, grabbed a log, and looked in my notes where I have random project ideas written. Apparently at some point I just wrote “Snails!” I power carved the rough shape and then whittled outside. The disgusting looking jar is my two year old homemade batch of vinegar and steel wool. It still works really well as a home brew stain and darkened the shell nicely. The branch is a piece of black locust I picked up a few years ago from someone’s firewood pile. I knew I’d get around to using it.
The video was just sort of a “Meh. Why not?” Thing.

See the video below for a timelapse of the entire process!