As some of you know I have been working with a fine furniture store now for quite some time, taking their cut offs to bring you new products and further sharpen my skills in all areas of wood working. Just one year ago in November of 2016 I brought some of my creations to show the manager at the furniture shop. She was very pleased to see someone as young as me doing wood working and was very impressed with my work and said she would love to see some pictures of the things I made as I progress. She also gave me a few small pieces of wood to try including some Koa which I was very happy to have and was excited to see how it would look once finished. Since she gave me some wood I wanted to give her something as well, so, I decided to make her a pen. I made her a pen with the Koa she gave me along with one I made with some lace/leopard wood for the office lady there as well. I later emailed her with some more pictures of my work, she was very pleased to see what I had made and also said she loved the pen I made her and uses it every day. On my birthday in me and my dad went to the shop so I could look at some of the wood they had in the lobby there. Although they put the scraps out for free, they also had larger pieces of wood for sale available inside if anyone was interested. I ended up finding several pieces of wood I liked with some beautiful color in the grain along with other unique qualities. Later in October we stopped by again before taking some of my items to the knitting store for the first time. when we got there the manager had informed me that sadly they where closing there doors and it would probably be good to get any more wood if I needed any. After going inside and looking around I somehow managed to find some more wood. Getting all of the wood that I had I wanted to make something for the manager, although I had already made her a pen I wanted to make her something that was a little more special and would show the skills that I've learned. The office lady there told me that she collects model cars, so, I started thinking of things I could make. I decided on making her a wood picture of a car and framing it with a different piece of wood. I chose some curly Koa for the picture and some Walnut for the frame. For the picture I traced an image of a Ferrari on a piece of paper to wood burn through it onto the piece of wood. After I finished cutting and gluing everything together, I cut around the car so I could place it on my wood exactly where I wanted it to go. I then taped it flat on the wood and started wood burning over the picture I had traced. I ended up needing to go over the burning a second time because it didn't burn enough through the paper. I then signed my name on the back and oiled it with mineral oil, which really brought out the curls in the wood.
She loved the picture and was happy to have it, she was especially impressed by my miters and glue lines. This was a fun and new project and I very much enjoyed making it. Although they have closed their doors I still have plenty of wood to keep me busy. I am very grateful for all the wood that I have received from them and hope to use some of my own wood harvested from our homestead in the future.