Thank You!

We have not fallen off the face of the earth, just replaced blogging with Social Media it seems. We are on Instagram and Twitter and Pinterest and Facebook. It's time consuming. It's also a great way to reach people. And it's fun. The social aspect is what I love about it; the feedback, the ease of sharing.

However, I miss writing our blog posts. Personally, I like it as a record of our work,and it's a wonderful way to share the stories of folks we work with.

Our clients (you!!) are the most amazing, warm, loving people! 

And really, our story is your story. 

We thank you for entrusting us with the creation of your rings!
Whether they are wedding or engagement rings, a birthday gift, memorial or anniversary rings; we are humbled that you entered into this relationship with us. 

THANK YOU for enriching our lives these past 16 years with your stories.
You’ve shared your hopes and dreams, your struggles, your joys and your sorrows with us.
Sometimes we’re the first to know that you plan to propose, the first to know you’ve decided
to elope, the first to know just how deeply in love you are! 

For David and I, you are why we do this work and your stories are what sustain us.

Awesome people you are!  One and all.  

Like Lauren and Chris who are artist/illustrators. In February, while David was making their rings; Lauren and I were chatting about spring, and Chris's birthday and that kind of thing. She wrote, "Things are finally starting to warm up here in Texas so we took the opportunity to bring our dogs out on the town! Austin is a super dog-friendly city and a lot of the bars serve non-alcoholic "doggy beer." Looks like Cicero might have had one too many in this photo :P " 

After Chris and Lauren received their rings, they wrote: "Thank you both again so much for all you do, we could not have asked for a better experience. We will definitely send you photos from the wedding in a few months!"

Much love to you both Lauren and Chris ~ we look forward to some pics from your Lord of the Rings themed wedding (yah) and we're hoping that Bilbo and Cicero will be taking part in the celebrations as well.  Because... Pugs. :) 

And thank you all ~ With dearest love.

This Earth Day, We Thank You.

On this Earth Day, we'd like to send a huge thank you to all our Touch Wood clients. People who are making a positive difference in the world. And they are legion.

Chas and Jenna commissioned their rings in the summer of 2013. They sent David two woods from remote Mfangano Island in Western Kenya. Both woods were bits of old fence posts. The two woods are "Kang'o" which Chas believed to be a wild olive (the long lighter piece) and "sangala" which he understood was a species of Sumac. (short reddish piece).



They designed their rings incorporating their two woods and our heritage black walnut.



Chas and Jenna are part of an awesome group of people called Organic Health Response. The organization, founded by Chas, describe their mission as "supporting an ecosystem of diverse community health initiatives on Mfangano Island, Lake Victoria, Kenya." Jenna was a WWOOFer (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) at Joel and Richard’s farm on Mfangano for six months and now serves on the board of directors of OHR.
We invite you to visit the OHR website, like their facebook page and please, get involved!



Kat and Scott's Touch Wood Wedding Rings incorporated a very special piece of wood that was connected to a beloved rescued elephant who lived out the remainder of her life at the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee of which Scott was co-founder. Kat and Scott have dedicated their lives to the care and comfort of elephants.



This couple spearheaded the awesome organization called Global Sanctuary for Elephants. Please visit their site, follow them on Facebook and support their amazing work with Elephants any way you can. There's an online auction coming up on Bidding for Good, June 5th to 13th. 

Elephant Sanctuary Brazil

And, if you are looking for earth friendly rings that offer a kinder gentler way to proclaim your love ~ please be in touch. David and I would love to hear from you!
Thanks again to all our incredible Touch Wood friends ~ you never cease to inspire us.

New life for a branch of beetle killed pine,

Pine Wood Ring   David is making himself a ring right now as a side project. I'm calling it his '48 Acre' Touch Wood Ring.  It's made of bug killed pine from our own property. 

David wears a size 13 1/2.  He's tapering his ring and it features a 'galaxy' knot. He swears by a tapered ring for comfort.

I thought it would be fun to share a few pics of this ring as a work in progress, then when it's complete, I'll come back and update with final pics. The grain and figure in wood deepens and intensifies through the sanding, shaping and finishing processes.

'Bug killed pine' is the blue stained wood sometimes called Blue Pine, Denim Pine or Beetle killed pine.

And here, as promised, are some pics of David's finished Denim Pine Wood Ring

"The current outbreak of The Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic in BC started in the early 1990's. Today the Mountain Pine Beetle occurs well beyond its historic range, extending into northern British Columbia and eastward in the boreal forest of north-central Alberta. Not just limiting itself to lodgepole pine any longer, the beetle is also reproducing in jack pine, the dominant pine species of the boreal forest." 1 source NRC
 

Six years ago, David wrote a blog documenting the sustainable harvesting of the dead and dying pine on our own property.

You wouldn't necessarily know it from reading my 'zippety do dah' posts, but our remote off grid lifestyle requires a good deal of grunt work.  Living here is worth every minute of the hard work required. I'm just saying I don't talk about it much.

David's blog is called Racing Ants It's a good read; full of intelligent, thoughtful commentary.  He talks about all sorts of things;  road building, fencing, sustainable logging, forest health, and it's chock full of photos too.  It's a great record of some of the hard work that happens to keep our 48 acres singing.  


And so ... as a bit of background to the bug killed pine that is getting another life as a wooden ring, here is David's introductory post on Racing Ants.  It was written June 5th, 2009. 

Chapter 1

In the beginning . . . there were ants

It's a busy time of year when spring finally emerges from the frosty nights and blustery days. Every project that winter inspired becomes more urgent as the short summer approaches and setting our priorities becomes paramount. Thank goodness our talented lead hand is also patient as we jump from one job to the next and he struggles to divide his time into our list of wants.



This is the year we have to deal with the considerable amount of bug killed pine that peppers our little forest. The trees are standing dead, but just barely standing, as root rot and ant colonies conspire to fall them before we do. We have to be very careful and keep our wits about us because they will sometimes fall without provocation . . . unnerving and dangerous . . . and the sound of wind is a warning to make your way to a clearing . . . heads up!

The Pine Beetles that eat the Cambrian layer and kill the tree, cause a stain that penetrates the tree for several inches in some cases. This stained wood when sawn produces a spectacular show of blue grey wood mixed with the typical white pine. The stain does not appear to fade or run so the wood can be finished to enhance this natural beauty. We have been burning this wood in the home fires while lamenting the destruction of these beautiful trees and the huge waste of potential lumber and wood products that are falling all around us. This winter we decided to do something to at least deal with the trees on our own land, so we bought a four head Logosol planer to add some value to the rough sawn lumber that is commonplace here. . .

Planing our lumber is the final step in the production process . . . first we had to acquire all the support machinery that is needed to produce the rough lumber for the planer and to selectively log the trees and haul them to the mill, and clean up the branches and remove the stumps and build the roads etc etc. Also we had to provide shelter for the machinery and store the final product. This will be a record of how all that is coming together . . .

 _______________________________ 

For the rest of the story, visit David's sustainable logging blog at http://racingants.blogspot.ca and check back here at the end of the month for some finished pics of his '48 Acre Ring'.


David and I are old school readers ~ the idea of reading a blog from the latest entry backwards never feels quite right.  There is a sense of order in starting at the beginning :)  on that note, here are chapter by chapter links for Racing Ants.

Chapter 1 
Chapter 2    
Chapter 3 
Chapter 4 
Chapter 5 
Chapter 6 
Chapter 7 
Chapter 8 

As always ~ thanks so much for dropping by!