Woodwork on Wednesday

Sometimes, projects lend themselves to a learning process.

In my first attempt (from left to right) at making the deer, I had picked up some free wood (slats for a fence), and tried to piece the boards together. Not good. Plus, I just painted the cutout background...giving it a rough texture.

In my second attempt, I splurged on a nice piece of 1x10 lumber, and back-dropped it with a cut-up piece of old towel, and a garage sale dress shirt. Nicer, but still not there. Plus, I didn't like the ear on the left, the way it kind of merges in with the antlers.

Finally, to the third attempt. I reshaped the ear, and this time added a nice green plaid shirt, a thrift store find.

One of my critics (daughter Karen) brought us dinner last night, so I showed them to her. I felt like I was presenting three bowls of porridge to Goldilocks.

"The first is not worth a comment, the second one is too plain, but the third one...the third one...is...just...right."

I'm going to try the same cut-out thing with a brown trout, and (per Karen's suggestion), the state of Michigan.

Always feels good...to work with wood.