My father was an infinitely curious man. He had quite a few hobby's over his lifetime (as have I which is why my mother was always proclaiming "you are just like your father"). Very early in their marriage he turned to one of those hobby's to help make extra money. He would work during the summer vacation (he was a teacher) as a carpenter. For many years he pursued that at a lumberyard in Corpus called Priest Lumber. They sold a lot of redwood patio furniture and my father was one of the carpenters they employed to make the furniture. He at some point made a wooden file box from redwood 1/2 inch thick and 12 inches wide. You would be hard pressed to find redwood of this size and type today. Knot free and and after over 60 years still warp free. However the box had seen its better days so I decided to cut it up and make a keep sake for family members from it. So that is where the base crosses came from.
On one of the crosses I used cedar salvaged from a small cedar chest that had belonged to my mother as well as an old piece of costume jewelery that she had for as long as I can remember I believe she got it in 1965 when we visited my fathers mother in California.
One of the crosses was kept simple and I added a forged iron cross to it and finished it in a manner similar to the way my father finished untold thousands of plaster pieces over the years (but that is another hobby and another story). High gloss lacquer.
The other has a middle cross made of poplar and a small top cross of turquoseite (commonly sold for affordable turquoise jewelry it however is not real turquoise). Turquoise was a particular favorite of my mother. The poplar was used because of the color variation from cream to green I found in that piece.
Cross 1
Cross 2
Cross 3
Hope all is well with you.
Go carve something!
Bruce
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