wood day

yesterday was *wood day* at the folk art center up on the blue ridge parkway. this event is annual and free and there are many demonstrations of all sorts of woodworking going on. being the wood lovers that we are, we had to go check it out!
the first demonstration we saw was joe ruminski turning this natural edge bowl. sienna and jasper both enjoyed watching him at work with the lathe, but sienna was absolutely spellbound. she watched him finish one bowl and then stayed to watch the entire process again!
he gifted her the bowl he made for her incredible patience and focused interest. such a sweet gesture! his instructions were to let it sit overnight and then to sand, sand, sand and finish it. we have worked on that a bit today. i will post pics when it is finished.
we saw only one woman (and i failed to take her picture!). she is a carver. she was working on a gorgeous nativity scene. we engaged in a lovely conversation about the beauty of wooden toys, the imaginative play of children, and the barrage of plastic toys her grandchildren are surrounded by. i want to adopt her!

my children have played with wooden toys as long as they can remember so it was really incredible for them to see the different steps these figures progress through before they come to life.
this was my favorite sign! the best part was that the sign itself was the first thing that jasper picked up. this is the work of jim mc phail. his display was intriguing because he uses lots of exotic woods and had squares of them all and showed what they looked like before and after they were finished. he also stacks these woods to make these layered bowls and he had clever little displays to show this process....and you could touch it all. ;)
his lathe was much smaller as he works on a rather tiny scale. once again, sienna waited patiently for him to begin, stayed for the entire process, and asked poignant questions. and once again....he gifted her the bowl!! as you can see here, these tiny bowls are quite pricey! we won't talk about how that price tag is likely because some of the woods he uses are from endangered trees. no, i'll just let her enjoy her little bowl. it has gone off to live in that extravagant dollhouse. a shaving horse at work. this guy was cute and didn't quite know what to do with the kids. he gave them some curly-q shavings. ;)
and yes, it gets even better!! she got to turn her own pen! the carolina mountain woodturners were on hand to help folks make their own keepsakes. technically, children were to be 7, but they let her slide under the radar.
she started with a block of wood and worked with this fellow to carve the pen shape and make lines in it for her design. she wore this face shield and they held the carving tools together.
then she moved outside to work with this fellow and began sanding her piece. at this point, she was able to do most of the work by herself. here she began adding color. it was a fascinating process. using a sharpie marker, she held it at the bottom edge of the pen and the color went on quickly as the lathe continued to spin. after the color was on, she waxed it with a block of beeswax and polished it with a cloth.
here is her final work! she could not have been more proud.
her treasures from the day. they even gave her a certificate for completing an introductory woodturning lesson.
as we picnicked together afterward, this bowl became an impromptu nature display.this little guy was a real trooper. there was not much for the three year old crowd to do but look. once (a long time before we were finished actually) he said *me want to get out of this place*, but other than that he hung in there for three hours while his sister indulged herself! this is his pouty face afterward when he lamented *me no make anything*. i love his toddler lingo.

sienna lay with me last night, clutching her pen tightly, going on and on about all the things she wants to make on a lathe. she was particularly impressed that she got to do the same project as the grown ups that were there. she slept with her pen in her bed last night. ;)

today....i have strep throat. :( i'm going back to bed now. hope you all enjoyed a wonderful weekend!