Showing posts with label touchwoodrings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label touchwoodrings. Show all posts

Friday, May 05, 2017

A short history of steam bent wood rings

Touch Wood Rings
Touch Wood Rings are steam bent wooden rings. While steam bending wood is an ancient art, David is the originator and pioneer of the steam bent method of building a wooden ring.

A wooden ring is hardly an oddity anymore. There aren't many people nowadays who haven't heard of or seen a wooden ring and lots of people wear them. When I first introduced David's bent wood rings online in 2003, a wooden ring was considered a bit of a joke.

That was then.

David and I are humbled and honoured to have started "a revolution in the jewelry industry", as a very early client of ours predicted.

There was only one other wood ring maker when I introduced David's work online. Dale Randles of Artistree Wood Art has offered his wood crafts online since 1998. The main difference is that Dale's rings were (and still are) carved wooden rings; not bentwood. 

Every other bent wood ring maker you find online now (and there are hundreds) came after David. We trained and mentored some of them and we've watched a whole industry grow up behind us. It's been pretty incredible really. Humbling.  


A Touch Wood Ring as a Work in Progress

Natural materials have been carved into objects of personal adornment ever since humans began adorning ourselves. Materials like shell, bone and stone have of course survived the ravages of time better than tiny carved wooden objects.

One carved wooden ring that has survived is in The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. They have in their collections a 'carved' Bog Oak Wood Ring from Ireland dating from about 1775. The museum doesn't have a picture of the ring online but here is a photo of a set of Irish Bog Oak Rings David made for couple a few years ago. The light wood in this set is Australian Huon Pine.


Irish Bog Oak Wood Rings with Huon Pine inlay and liners

Through my research, I've found references to a wooden finger ring (recovered) from an Egyptian mummy, and carved wood rings found on the battlefields of WW1 and WW2; sad reminders of too many young men who loved someone back home and quite likely lost their lives; leaving their little mementos of love to molder in the trenches.


Apple Wood Ring with Braided Birch Bark inlay

Finnish folklore of long ago offers a song about a young fellow making a birch bark ring for his beloved after he drank away all his money. This song was sent to us by one of our early clients who wanted a birch and birch bark ring for his Finnish girlfriend. Here is a rough translation of that song:
Heisuli hei, my song sings, I am a trouble free vagabond rascal! This boy drank his last coins, one cannot live rich. I made a golden ring out of birch bark, I will engage a girl for myself. This birch bark ring and my love lasts one night at a time. 

So, what is steam bending exactly?

"Bending wood dates back to antiquity in the form of baskets from willow branches. Fresh growth willow twigs are readily bent in practically any shape.



When wood has been separated from the tree and dried, it is more rigid, difficult to bend and breakable. Bending drier wood with the help of heat and water is centuries old. Fishing hooks, barrel staves, and planks turned into boat hulls are examples." Source

"There are three basic ways of softening wood fibers. The first is to heat moisture already in the wood. This means using already moist, green wood, or soaking dry wood to replace the necessary moisture, then using a fire, or other heat source to turn the water to steam. The second method is to create steam first, and then force the steam into the wood. The final method is to use boiling water to penetrate the wood fibers." Source

If you are interested in learning more about bending wood, Steven Edholm has an excellent blog post titled: Bending Wood: What you need to know.


Touch Wood Oak Rings featuring the natural figure and grain of the Oak wood.

And so it goes. 
Wooden rings would not be a reality if people like you didn't find them beautiful and have a desire to wear one on your finger. And we thank you!

Touch Wood Rings has always been just the two of us. David is the artist and craftsman and I (Nicola) do the other stuff. Talking with you is what I love most about my work.

We live remote and off grid on 48 acres in the Cariboo Chilcotin area of BC. Our nearest neighbour is 10 miles away and town is a 45 minute drive on a good day ~ over active logging roads. David's brother has a cabin here as well. Our 48 acres is precious to all three of us. We consider ourselves stewards of this little corner of the planet and we take that very seriously.

We live a good life. A quiet life. The real difference I find about living remote is that our lives are mostly uninterrupted. This uninterrupted time allows us to focus on the natural world around us and to focus on you and fulfill your desire for a hand crafted Touch Wood Ring. 

We are truly blessed. And ever thankful.
And we invite you to be in touch.
Please drop me a line at nicola@touchwoodrings.com ~ I'd love to hear from you.
Visit our website (currently being updated, thank goodness)
And join us on social media is you like  Instagram,  TwitterFacebook and Pinterest

In closing, here are some snapshots from around our off grid homestead.
As always, thanks so much for dropping by!


The little log cabin that overlooks the creek


Wildflowers in July


Our place from overhead ~ the creek and hayfields


Nick and Kali on walkabout


On our walking trails, looking over at the homestead


Dandelion delight and solar panels


Mom and the young Mister with a cowbird along for the ride



Monday, July 20, 2015

Rocks and rings and puppies, oh my!


They've promised to share some wedding pics after their celebration in August :) but for now, here's a relaxed and happy pic of Kim and Sarah on their anniversary this past November...  (Update below)
We began our conversation in October 2014.  These two women were so much fun to work with. They sent us photos of their three sweet pups as each holiday came around.

This first pup pic was their Christmas card ~ do they have fun with their dogs or what?! 





Sarah and Kim sent us stones from the place where they got engaged and also the place where they will be married. They chose dark Hawaiian Koa and Juniper heartwood as their woods.

We always send a series of work in progress pics but when we sent them the photos of their completed rings this is the email we got back!  :) 

"Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow!!  We are both so amazed by these beautiful rings that we don't even know what to say!
We opened the email and were shocked that the rings were already done. They look like they would take months to complete. How does David do it??
We then had to click a "load pictures" link to get the images to display. It felt like it took about a year for the pictures to load! We held hands and waited... Anxious and nervous for what we were about to see. And once the rings came into view, we both shouted with glee!


The rings are incredible! Never in a million years could we have imagined that they would be so perfect!
The most amazing part is probably the inlay. We realized somewhere along the way that we had set a monumental task in front of David. We sent a ton of stones, not knowing how they would blend, whether or not they would compliment one another, and what final color they might make. We also gave David very little guidance regarding what we wanted the final "color" to be (since we really didn't know). We simply trusted his artistry and that was a great decision! Despite the enormity of the task, he hit a grand slam!
The color of the inlay is perfect! It's so beautiful! It almost has the look of marble.. A gorgeous, cohesive color, but with a ton of character and personality, especially when you take a closer look.

The woods are gorgeous. The inscription is perfect. We cannot thank you both enough!! We have already sent the photos to the select few that will be attending our big day, and they agree that the rings are gorgeous!
We will be anxiously awaiting their arrival and will definitely let you know once they have made their way to Ohio.
Thank you both so much!
Kim and Sarah and Pups"


And then their rings arrived in the mail :)

"They are spectacular! We absolutely love them! We are already showing them off to all of our friends (who all agree that they are perfect)! We are so excited!  We can't wait til August, for the rings to finally be on our fingers. We absolutely adore our rings and we have been so happy with the entire process!  Again, thank you both so so much! We are so glad that our search for unique, special rings lead us to you two. I honestly can't think of a pair of rings (or a pair of people) that would have fit this occasion any better."


and last but not least ... a pic of Caesar wearing his birthday party hat...  
Soon ... we'll update this post with some photos from Kim and Sarah's wedding celebration.  I'm betting their fur babies will be in some of the pics :)  Much love to you both and your pups ~ we'll be with you in spirit on August 14th! XO

 Brutus, Cali and Caesar on the 4th of July :)

Update:  August 24th, 2015
"It was amazing!!!!!  Best day of our lives!!  The weather was beautiful, the ceremony was perfect, and the moment was incredible!


We had such a great time celebrating with each other, the pups, and our closest friends.  It was perfect!  The entire ceremony was very personal and intimate, and exchanging beautiful rings that echoed those same sentiments was truly wonderful.  We are so happy!
Thank you again for everything!  Our day was truly remarkable, and our beautiful rings, as well as the love and care that went into them, helped make our day even more special!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!
 Kim, Sarah, pups"





Wish we could have been there ~ but your photos make us feel as though we were!
and we were with you in spirit. :)
Much love and happiness to you both Sarah and Kim
and your delightful pups.
as ever, Nicola and David