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Archive for December 18, 2017

Raddle? – Jewelry Box

It’s called a raddle. Yup! It’s for weavers to keep bundles of fiber separated as they prepare the loom for work. I built these. I was experimenting with wood finish. There were a lot of small dowels cut on the chop saw. Oak is the easiest best wood for me to get at the big box home store. Pine and poplar don’t play well with stains. They (raddles) are kind of stunning. They are relatively simple to make. I did it for fun… a relaxing interlude where appearance was not critical. Jewelry boxes are different. Every flaw counts. Finish is key to appearance. Boy, I struggled! Like everything else, “it don’t look bad” from the outside. Indeed, it looks pretty nice! Yup! Consider it art. If they were manufactured like widgets they would all be uniformly the same. Me? I like excuses. Art is where each individual work is unique and has its own flaws which make it “one of a kind.” Ha! An excuse. I’m aiming for perfect and accepting imperfection. My partner, also the consumer and design originator, was quick to exclaim how lovely these boxes turned out. I’m more critical. She’s also gonna be steamed I called her a partner. There’s gotta (gonna) be a better term.