These are two maple vurl bowls I'm working on. I don't realoly know how to turn yet, so I start these with a chain saw and follow up with a grinder with a chain saw blade on it. As with all sharp tools, paying attention is the key to a long life and happy limbs!

Al Villadson and i were riding around his property looking for a suitable tree for a sculpture which is going in the county fairgrounds, when we spotted these 2 burls. One, the larger,  was on a branch, which we needed to just cut off. The other was in the middle of a tree. I always hesitate to cut a healthy tree just because I want one of it's parts, Al has no such qualms. "I've got a lot of trees---won't even miss it." And it was a young, thin tree.

The sculptural tree, a white pine, was a different story. At about 150' tall and 3' across at the base, this 80 year old tree had definitely been enjoying the view happily for some time. A; was nonplussed: "Won't even miss it. Gives young trees a chance." A quarter mile away, an eagle nestinging in a similar white pine, was casting nervous glances our way. A chain saw is just too fast for nature to understand. So it goes. 

Now I've finally got the swing together. In order to size the bench from 65" to the present swing of 54", I eliminated one board in the back of each seat, narrowed the center heart piece and pulled it all closer eliminating gaps. Whew! But then I was left with oversized connecting pieces at the seat level. I laid it all out and fudged my way through that.

The first pic has no plugs. There were about 3,000 plugs, I think, to cover all the screw holes. OK, maybe not that many, but it felt like it.

The second pic shows the swing finished.

I was still uncertain that it would hold the weight, even though I put some cool brass reinforcing pieces on each side of where the eye bolts went through. But, today Ellie and Lori and I sat on it, with a combined weight of 400 lbs. and it held! Although, I really don't believe that Lori weighs 150 lbs and Ellie, being a kid, had no idea and didn't really care how much she weighs, so we gave her 80 lbs. But I'm happy. Now how to get it to it's home....

A customer went on my site and saw this loveseat I made for my mother years ago. My sister now owns it. The customer would like it to be a painted swing, 13" narrower. OK, well I still miraculously have all the milar cutouts of the original loveseat. So, I made and primed all the pieces and this is what I have so far: