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.

Apr 15

Cad Bane, Daniel D. Brown PhD, 2021

Meet Cad Bane, one of the coolest bounty hunters in the Star Wars universe (voiced by Corey Burton). This piece is roughly based on an artwork by the extraordinarily talented @daztibbles. I’ve taken a lot of liberties with it – his level of detail is impossible to translate to wood with high fidelity. Most of the piece uses only the natural colors of the different wood species, with the exception of the face, eyes, gums, and tongue. I additionally added a bit of my neighbors weathered pine fence in an attempt to give it a slightly “Western” accent.

As with almost all my Star Wars pieces, it will now adorn my tiny, dirty Star Wars-themed “shop bathroom”. 😂 I think we’re gonna need a bigger bathroom…

Species used: regular and curly maple, mahogany, sapele, mesquite, padauk, walnut, Lombardy poplar, wenge, cherry, mulberry, holly, yew.

Jan 31

Puzzle Piece Trivets

Wooden Puzzle Piece Trivets

Super quick project begun and finished today! Since I built my Rebel Table, it’s gotten a LOT of use, including for hot meals in front of the TV in our Lair. I wanted a couple of handy trivets to avoid ruining the table finish with hot plates. So I grabbed the first two scraps that looked appropriately sized – two leftover cherry panels of vastly different coloring. I decided on the design on the fly, quickly scrolled out the shape, planed, sanded, and tossed on some @odiesoil, feet, and a hanger. They will now reside next to our futon for quick access.

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).