i gather wood from torn up orchards and purchase timber sized lumber once in a while. the walnut pieces on one pagoda are from some walnut my grandfather purchased in arkansas probably around the 50's or early 60's. the red colored wood is blood wood, and the other walnut one is some walnut i picked up from alabama. they are pretty commonly grained furniture quality wood, very straight without much variation. the arkansas walnut is a little gray, the alabama, a little darker. i can't remember what the lighter colored wood is.
he got the idea from that pic in the magazine. in the mag, the pagoda's are much larger, and obviously have some carving on the cylinders. all the pieces are friction fitted and mic'd to be the same to retain the perspective of the pagoda which kinda reminds me of the space needle, getting smaller as it goes up, and then big. my dad usually makes something every year. last year, i salvaged a huge black locust tree he's gonna make stuff as it dries a little. i saved the transition between root and shoot for me, but i'll probably give it too him. i gave him a huge walnut burl stump we are trying to make a sitting bear out of.
saw a story about outsourcing christmas shopping. i got to thinking just purchasing premade gifts is a sort of outsourcing. i usually get people stuff they would'nt do for themselves, like get my mom's husband good meats and some of a steer i had butchered (the one in the earlier pics).
forgot to mention, that that check is written in PENCIL!!!!!!
Merry christmas everyone, hope your day is going great.