Arts and Crafts - 2013 style

Check out this idea.  I heard about it a little online, so decided to try it myself. 

No no, I didn't hear about making a rod online.  Look at the foregrip!  One might say, "what in the world is that weird looking cork?"

 


Let's see that a little closer.

 THAT my friends is an addition to the store-bought handle using nothing more than Douglas-fir bark!  With Butch's tools and help, we were able to turn that thing out in about two hours (that included a lot of failures.)  I never knew that essentially taking a plug of bark and then shaping it down would look like that. 

But now you have to imagine Butch and I clamping a hand drill in a vice, modifying a drill bit to hold that thing (with tape) and then while one person mashed the power button...the other stood there and took that plug from 1.5 inches to .5 inches with a rasp and sandpaper.

We let that dry for a couple days and I sat down the other day and finally bored the inside diameter down to where it would fit on the blank.  Then I epoxied the whole shebang and clamped it in place.  All I need to do now is hit it with some really fine sandpaper to get the excess epoxy off of it and it'll be good to go! 

Hmmm, and I need to finally decide on the design for the butt wrap.  I have something in mind, but no pattern.  And if you can believe this...I'm thinking about just making my own pattern and seeing how it'll turn out.  I could easily be setting myself up for frustration, but...I've got time...and March is definitely the time of year to do this sort of thing.

Hopefully I'll take the time to take photos of my thread art.  It's bound to be an adventure.