It Wood 'n Dirt

Extremely honoured to have been asked to make a series of 12x trophies for the annual Northumberland Central Chamber of Commerce Business Achievement Awards. These trophies will be awarded tonight to the worthy winners celebrating business excellence within our locale.

The core design of the ‘upwards staircase’ is the work of the Chamber’s very own Mr Kevin Ward, though I was graciously afforded the creativity to decide material selection and pattern/placement

Unfortunately, we weren’t allotted a vast amount of time to produce these (this was by no means The Chamber’s fault!), but still: they were delivered on time, and within budget.

Using all locally-sourced native wood species, the main towers comprise Black Walnut, Ash & Cherry, whilst the solid 2” plinths are Wormy Maple. Each plinth was machined to allow a pocket for the engraved brass plaque to be attached (by our friends at )

Looking forward to learning who the worthy recipients will be!

LED edge-lit acrylic decor, ready for an fan’s man-cave!

In case it wasn’t …!😂

Happy Friyay, all!

!

Tired of *constantly* tripping over fishing rods leaning precariously out in the garage, I decided to grab a couple of slabs of cherry, and some walnut. After a short time spent at the computer, hurling a design & toolpaths together, I had the cherry top and bottom shelves cut on the CNC. A little while later, and the walnut supports/frame were planed, jointed, cut to size, and dominos added.

A relatively straight-forward, quick, yet immensely pleasurable build that will now give these rods somewhere to safely reside during the ‘off-season’!

Fellow local sawdust-makers! Did you guys know that Peacock Lumber have a new operation RIGHT ON OUR DOORSTEPS?!?

I stopped -by the new store on Purdy St in Colborne to check it out this morning, and it’s a wicked place! The guys are still ramping-up, BUT: whatever you might otherwise buy from their Oshawa place, they can also supply!

In addition, Store owner (Matthew) is an awesome guy, who’ll go out of his way to help! (I ~may~ have shared a few of your handles with him, so blame me if he ‘follows’!!

Go and visit these guys!!

AI-generated large Canadian mammals, permanently engraved into slate coasters… but this could just as easily be your business’ logo, or family monogram…

Grayscale engraving of an AI-generated image of a wolf onto a solid slate coaster… as a former IT geek, messing with these emerging tools intrigues me (yet at the same time: fills me with concern for where this path could possibly lead…!)

I can’t recall EVER having the shop door wide open in the middle of December… but it is today! Happy weekend, all!

Bandsaw-cut reindeers? Ok… I’ll play…

Ummm… “Space rock!”

Found a little time to sneak-away, and make another app-controlled RGBIC backlit silhouette… man, these things become VERY addictive!

Welp, didn’t THAT quickly become a dangerous (obsessive compulsive?) rabbit-hole…!

Lots of vector creation, lots of node editing, a ton of image manipulation, offsetting and Boolean adjustments but they’re starting to become ‘viable’…! 🤣🎄

And: then adding seasonal greetings in an appropriate font too…

Channeling my inner self on this lil’ guy…!

Christmas must be around the long curve - a single order of 40x personalised (well - 20x red, 20x white) were delivered this afternoon to for their promotional purposes (thanks, T!)

My wife ( ) will be at the market in Grafton this coming weekend, so I was tasked with designing a new seasonal ornament that she might be able to offer… these ain’t no little red trucks (that I STILL get asked about - and have just completed an order of 40x of for one customer!), but I hope that they’re well received nonetheless!

If you’re planning to attend, look-out for (and say “hello” to) my wife displaying her boutique bandsaw boxes upstairs in the Grafton Inn!

(These could easily be customized, so if interested, just ask!)

Further to spending the afternoon messing around with the music-synching feature of these LEDs, I played with the user-selectable colour settings… REALLY liking the ability to control individual sections independently… makes for some REALLY cool visuals! (Or at least: *I* think so!)

Mrs IWND was introduced to fishing this season. To say that she has been bitten by the bug would be a severe understatement!!

In addition to joining, and participating in the group, she’s also planning on treating herself to a dedicated fishing kayak for next season, and is already plotting her possible purchases for both kayak and all ancillary gear

One thing she DOES know, is that her kayak will need to be outfitted with some kind of plotter/GPS graph/fish finder… and that sounded like JUST the excuse I needed to start building an all-new 12V ultra-small, ultra-light rechargeable battery pack!

…and here she is!

This 30” x 16” name plaque was kindly requested by a proud new young family, helping to celebrate the birth of their new son. (Wall mounting will be achieved via a pair of (supplied) aluminum stand-offs)

This campsite sign was requested by a wonderful neighbour, as a gift for her fella.

Since camping season is almost at an end, this won’t be installed until next spring (which can’t arrive soon enough!!)

D’oh!! I forgot to share these, but better late than never!! Last month was a busy one for a lovely local resident - not one, but TWO weddings within their family!

Originally commissioned to make a large guest-signing board on a live-edge cherry board, I was then asked to make a second plaque for their own son and his now-wife - incorporating some very specific (and highly sentimental) imagery.

The results are within the attached pics.

Wishing the best of health, wealth and happiness to BOTH newlywed couples!

VERY pleased with how this pair of game boards came out!

Both were carved from a solid 2” thick Wormy Maple slab that also feautred some of the most gorgeous spalting.

These two already have eager new homes waiting for them!

A wee challenge - a local restaurateur is expanding their operation, and was looking for a sign to fit their existing historic building’s style…

We opted to make this 72” wide “raised lettering” sign (with 4.5” letters), all attached to a 2” thin strip of material, that was stained make the backing as inconspicuous as possible.

The whole sign was then attached to an original solid hand-hewn beam with brad nails to ensure that if it ever does need to be removed, it won’t damage/spoil the original woodwork/architecture.

The restaurateur is extremely pleased with the outcome, and I must admit to being quite proud of it too!

Thank you to the ever-lovely Terri, owner of the for your continued loyal custom!

Picture taken at 10:00pm this evening… this evening’s sure didn’t disappoint, lighting the yard like daytime.

…And three more along a similar vein - all for the same event!

Holy! If I happened to mention that the previous signs included a ton of tiny parts, then I definitely spoke too soon!

This guy’s 30” tall, and 20” wide, and again - for an upcoming event.

Running with the theme for this one for an upcoming event - this sign’s 32” across.

Baltic Birch is ludicrously expensive right now, so this revolutionply has become my new ‘goto’ product for the laser… it cuts even easier than BB (no ‘voids’ n the material to worry about), and is considerably more cost-efficient. The final product is FAR cleaner as a result!

And: yeah - there were *A LOT* of small, fiddly pieces to attach to this 32” custom sign…!

Static shots of the 12v LED edge-lit feeder… shortly before I remembered I had some funky 5V RGB LED’s kicking around, and a 5V USB powerbank board too! Get ready for this puppy to go into fully remote-controllable ‘Disco’ mode very soon!! 💃🕺🪩 🤣

A fun afternoon project - a new bird feeder, complete with personalised laser engraved/cut acrylics!

The main body is finished in Cherry stain, the roof in Dark Walnut