around here, comparing "then and now."On the way back to her house she wanted me to drive her down to my father's shop to take a look at it. As you can see from the photo, that's him in his shop, he had the thing packed from top to bottom. He had everything in there except for a bathroom... after his retirement he would spend all day there tinkering on everything from broken televisions and microwaves to his latest creations, which covered dream catchers, santas, turtle shell rattles, etc etc etc. With a microwave, radio, television and refrigerator packed with moon pies and ice water, he spent most of his time in that building...
The man never passed a yard sale or flea market that he didn't turn into and absolutely have to touch every damn thing on display.. I mean literally put his hand on everything in the place.. And God help you if you ever went to a book store with him...
After he passed away in 2008 my mother had a yard sale at his shop. She didn't even consider moving all the stuff anywhere, just opened the doors and let people go through his things. Most of his goods sold, but there were a few things left over...
When we got down to the shop we walked in and looked at the mostly empty building, a very sad thing to behold... This once vibrant building, full of laughter, color and creativity now stands empty and smells of dust and neglect... There were a few of his posters still hanging around, a smattering of tools and several boxes of items he bought for his crafts. She wanted me to go through what was there and see if there was anything I wanted or could use in my carving work. I was drawn to an old discarded box on a shelf.. When I looked in I found two pieces of cypress.. One stained a horrible dull brown and the other painted a bright red. I took them both out and looked at them for a few minutes. She walked up and, through teary eyes, told me the story of the trip they were on when he came across these two pieces at a flea market in a nearby town. She picked up the dull brown one and said that they both looked like that when he bought them... He had painted the other one red with the idea of carving a Santa into it. The dull one he had talked about carving several faces on... She said, "Take these and see what you can do with them.."
I took them both...
I took the brown one out Sunday and began stripping it down, back to its original state, a long process... once finished I drew out several faces and carved them into the cypress. I then began experimenting with stains to find the correct one to use, after several attempts, and lots of sanding to remove the failed ones, I settled on this color. The stain is light enough to allow the grain to come through. The wood was so dry it sucked up the stain and finish coat so fast I had to work carefully to get it right... Being so dry sanding was done by hand...
I think that dad would have been pleased with the outcome, and I hope I hit it somewhere near the mark of his original idea...
The piece stands 19" tall and seven inches wide at the bottom.... And yes, it has already been sold. Something of this nature will stay in the family.
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