Shadow box project 3/17/2018 part 1

I received a long piece of Douglas Fir used lumber. It might have been a part of house siding that got discarded. My scavenging coworker harvested it and gave it to me. I want to make a shadow box because the stash of shadow boxes that I have that were originally from my workplace but was destined for the landfill is running out. And being that found object artist that I am, I was drawn to recycled pieces so as to not have to cut more trees down. Growing trees, no matter how sustainable the practice is, still take a long time to reach harvestable stage. Using this wood seemed like a good idea at the time.

Here are the challenges and where I’m having some buyer’s remorse feelings.

1) splits from removed nails or the process of removing the wood from its original location can compromise the integrity of the leftover piece.

2) may require lots of rip cuts to get the wood to the desired width size. Rip cuts = cuts along the grain of the wood (versus cross cut)

3) may still have nails in the wood.

Regardless, I committed myself to the idea for working the wood. But   I did have moments of buyer’s remorse especially when faced with #1.

I told Jay, my teacher. He suggested I put in krazy glue along the splits so that when I cut mortis into the wood, the wood integrity remains intact. Cynthia Tom suggested applying gold leaf powder into glue and applying this combination into the cracks like in kintsugi pottery, so I’m going to try this. The cracks don’t look terribly serious right now. but when I pound the tenon into the mortis it may break the wood.

And I also handplaned the wood. It’s soooo purdy and smooooooth!