Today we managed to cut and start the sanding of 10 more Sit and Spin spindles. These are from a beautiful, but mysterious hardwood ( juries out, hickory or a nut wood maybe! We are thinking it is possibly a Poplar since they are all over the farm, but frankly can't remember/not sure where the peecut logs showed up from.
I do know that it is gorgeous, the grain is showing up beautifully, and the tree must have had some pretty strenuous growth seasons to account for the grain variations in the wood.
Tomorrow is playing with the Drillpress, buying the dowels, shaping the dowels, more sanding and polishing before assembling and finishing.
These are to be ready for Hamilton Fibre Forge next small Pop Up Market! Grab your masks, your Sanitizer, and all your fibre wishes and come down and see us, we will be at Angora Springs Farm on September 12th 2020!
This may be the last batch for a while, as because of how we create these, the wood needs to be local, and naturally fallen/dead. After a cursory look around the Farm, because we planted the trees ourselves when we moved in over the last 37 years we do not seem to have many viable whorls to come.
So, do you have a fallen branch or tree, and live locally? We need about 6-8 inches in diameter of Hardwood. We will be going on a more in depth tour of our part of the farm, as well as seeking other options/things to make. But I for one, dont want to cut down a healthy tree to make spindles. We cut what we need, and the rest is for for natural mulch/ animals and bugs/ sometimes firewood.
However, our lovely unpaid (as of yet) intern (my sister, Manna) is busy designing more wooden beads. They are adorable, and there is one more set of Ducks in Hats back by popular requests (mine). She is very talented at drawing and outlining tiny things on wooden beads. We like them for macrame, but the lists of possibilities are endless, Keychain, doohickies, bookmarks, anything!