Sunday, November 11, 2007

Creative DNA

There is definitely an artistic or creative gene that runs in our family. My dad is so amazingly talented, it's scary. He learned how to be a 'joiner' or finishing carpenter, as a young person in Scotland. He always had a project on the go around the house, either furniture or some kind of home improvement, and it was always done flawlessly. When he retired, he was looking for a new hobby to fill his time, so he took up wood turning. Within three years, he reached 'Master' status and took third place in North America in a local competition. Since then, he's been published in a British wood turning magazine, sells his pieces to folk world wide and is highly respected and renowned in the wood turning world. Apparently, Diana Krall has one of his pieces!

He loves to come into my workroom and see what I'm doing and to see if anything I'm working on would cross over into his world. I was showing him a card making class that I was putting together, using Basic Grey rub ons for embellishments. He wondered if they would work on wood, so I gave him one to try out. Here's what he came up with ... it's called a Japanese Wish Pot and it's stunning. It also helped me with my course, because I could show yet another way to use these fabulous rub ons.



Dad also made me a few gorgeous shawl stick pins, so now not only does his craft have a correlation to scrap booking, but also to my other favorite thing ... knitting! I once needed size 25mm needles to do a mobius cape and couldn't find them anywhere. So, I went to the hardware store and bought a 25 mm dowel and took it over to Dad. He cut it, put it on his lathe, made a point at the end and then capped the other end with an adorable hand made wooden button. Ta-da! So talented

He gave us a scare this week when he needed to have another angiogram/angioplasty done, with a new stent installed in his heart, but all is well and he's back home, feeling great and thanking God for His goodness to him. Love you, Dad!

2 comments:

Tara said...

Wow! That is indeed truly beautiful. The warmth of the wood really comes through with this piece.

TJ said...

That is an absolutely beautiful piece. Your father is a very talented man.