Waning Winter and Wooden Rings

Winter appears to be waning on the meadow. We've had a run of Chinook like weather for the last little while.  It's the 20th of February and it's 5 days early for us to be seeing our first harbinger of Spring but we have, just this morning ... and here he is.  David got some lovely pics of our first Red Winged Blackbird of the season.

Renowned photographer and naturalist Chris Harris notes that "In the Cariboo Chilcotin Coast region of BC, spring typically comes during the month of March. It can arrive late some years in this part of the province, but when you’re outdoors in March, it’s time to start keeping your eyes open and ears perked. It’s a wonderful day when you see your first robin or hear that early first call of a Red-winged Blackbird. Then you know that spring is officially here!"

My post on our Homestone blog last year notes that our first Blackbird arrival was the 25th of February and on that day we also noted the arrival a flock of snow buntings and two robins!

Here are a few photos from my walkabout yesterday morning. It was a lovely start to the day with a touch of frost on the trees and willows.

Today David is busy building rings for some lovely people.  The sun is shining down on us and I must, once I get this post written, get back to answering emails from more lovely people.  We are so touched by what folks write to us.

David made a ring for Bob in January.  

Bob writes: "The ring is exquisite! A perfect fit, the coloring I was hoping for (And as a woodworker myself, believe me, I know how impossible it can sometimes be to select for final color…), and a beautiful swirling grain around the knot. It is… Perfect!   

I had looked at other sites, seen photos of other rings… But I kept coming back to Touch Wood - and I’m glad I did. David’s rings just looked more natural and artistic. And, especially when we started corresponding about the ring, I knew I’d made the right choice. Thank David for fashioning my beautiful ring for me, and thank you both for being such great people to work with!" 

 Spring is springing, the birds are singing and all's right with the world.  Thanks so much for stopping by and ... drop us a note sometime.  We love to hear from you.

The Loves and their Touch Wood Rings

We connected with Amanda and Taylor in March of 2015.  We have gotten to know each other pretty well over the months! I've been talking with these two beautiful women for so long, they really do feel like family now. Taylor works in theater and Amanda is a potter; they are talented, delightful, bright, positive women. 

They recently sent us some beautiful photos from their celebration in New Orleans ~ and this wonderful email. 

"We are married now! Legally!  In the United States of America!  WOOHOO!!! 

The day was magical and calm and full of joyful celebration! 

Our photographer; Elizabeth Ray made 4 hours of photos so much fun!  

Instead of taking one of each others surnames, we made an entirely new name for a few reasons. First and foremost, we are making a brand new family and we wanted to pick something that was simple and easy to spell and understand. We wanted something that symbolized our special bond. We also believe that 2015 was a historic year for this country and we wanted to represent that in our marriage. 
This is why we chose the name Love. 

We both knew of Touch Wood Rings before we even met, so deciding on rings was fairly easy. We wanted something unique, meaningful and made with love. We also didn't want to go into debt to get married, because that's not what it's about. 

The whole process with Touch Wood was absolutely divine. It was important to us to know where our rings were coming from because these are a symbol of our union, for life! 
We loved corresponding with you, Nicola, and always looked forward to the pictures you sent of your beautiful land. 

When we put the rings on for the first time, we knew we had made the perfect decision. Only myself and Amanda have these rings, there is not any other ring out there like the ones we have. They are one of a kind, just like our love! Thank you for putting so much heart into your work, it is VERY apparent! Our friends and family are awed by them too!  Many many Love Blessings!! Taylor and Amanda Love."

The Loves, their Rings and some New Orleans Macaroons

 David and I wish you both tremendous happiness and a lifetime of Love and Laughter!! May all your dreams continue to come true. XO

Celebrating the Love at the end of the year.

Celebrating the Love.

There were 10 wonderful people directly involved in the creation of these 10 rings toward the end of 2015.

Two couples who've designed their rings together and individuals who painstakingly described and designed a very special ring as a gift, or an offer of forever for their beloveds. And of course David and I were also very happily involved.  

Rosewood with Mother of Pearl and a Juniper heartwood ring

Man's tapered Blackwood Ring with a Purpleheart wood interior and three full moon inlays of greyed maple, Oak and Pink Ivory wood

 Black Walnut Wood Rings with Birch inlays, an Oak interior
and an inlay of crushed stone and sacred sage and sweet grass

Tapered Australian Blackwood Ring with wide inlays of Red Cedar and Eucalyptus

A size 10 figured Olive Wood Ring tapered from 9mm to 6mm

 Bethlehem Olive Wood Ring with a center inlay of Grenadilla Wood

Size 13 Figured and tapered Olive Wood Ring 

 Australian Blackwood Ring with an Oak interior liner 
and a single offset inlay of Eucalyptus

Wishing one and all a healthy and joyous 2016!

Much love from me and from David.

Touch Wood Rings

By David Finch

Pioneer of the steam bent wood ring.

An Australian engagement

Back in late May / early June, we began a conversation with a lovely young man from Australia. Chun was looking to design a very special ring for his beloved; Anna.
At that point, they were both PhD students and Chun wanted to incorporate their research projects into Anna's ring. 

As Chun explained, Anna's project studies the contaminants of urban billabongs (oxbow lake) which involved a lot of sediment core samples.  Chun's PhD project was investigating the use of special polymers to produce hydrogen for renewable energy.  One aspect of his work was making films on clear glass microscope slides.   After a bit of conversation back and forth, Chun packaged up and mailed a glass slide from his own PhD work and a little chunk of basalt from Anna's research work. 

Through no fault of our own; mine or Chun's ... it was a long, long wait till the package finally arrived at the post office in Williams Lake. Chun mailed his inlay material on the 15th of July. On the 13th of August we still hadn't received the package but got the happy news that Chun had just submitted his thesis!  That was cause for celebration on the home front!



To this day neither I nor Chun have any idea where his package disappeared to for those 6 weeks.  We were both trying to chase it down  and were reaching the point of giving up on it ~ then lo and behold. . . There it was, safely delivered to our post box on September 1st.  Yah!  Still in time for David to complete the work on Anna's ring for Chun's planned proposal in November.

Chun chose Australian Blackwood as the primary wood.  It's a beautiful rich dark wood that rivals Hawaiian Koa for beauty and depth of grain.  His research slide and Anna's basalt made up the center inlay with a full moon inlay of mother of pearl.  The center inlay is bordered by bright maple.

Anna said yes!! :)  Was there ever any doubt?!!

Chun and Anna were kind enough to share some of their happy post engagement pics with us too.

I especially love this photo of Anna, her cup of tea, the view and her ring.

Chun and Anna are currently visiting Japan and Anna's family there.

This photo is showing off Anna's ring against the beautiful fall colours in Japan right now.

It's such a lovely thing to be in touch with our wood ring friends over a period of time. By now we feel that Chun and Anna are old friends and we wish them tremendous happiness in the days and years ahead.

Our sincere thanks to Chun for contacting us so many months ago and for working with us on this special ring for his beloved. It has been very much our pleasure!!

Edwin's Oak

Alexandra commissioned an Oak wood ring for Edwin. He was in on it :)
Edwin and Alex live near Yosemite National Park. Edwin was born and raised in the Sierra Nevada foothills and always had an attachment to the oak trees, and oak wood.
This is the ring David created for Edwin. It is solid Oak with a very slight taper and a featured natural knot.

Not too long ago we received this email from Edwin. He wrote, "It occurs to me this evening that I never e-mailed to inform you that I received my ring....apologies. IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL!!! I am very impressed with David's work and grateful to have this piece of art for my wedding ring. Thank you both so much. With great appreciation and admiration, Edwin"

I see the knots in Edwin's ring as a perfect metaphor for a marriage ~ two flowering branches of a majestic oak.

Did you know ... that Oak trees have male flowers on one part of their branch, and female flowers on another part of the same branch. Most Oaks reach maturity and begin flowering at about 20 years old and are at their peak between about 50 and 80 years of age.  

Thankfulness

David and I are so thankful for each and every person who comes to us wanting to create a ring for their beloved, or rings for each other for a wedding or anniversary celebration.  It just doesn't get any better than this...

Nicola and David

We send our love and unparalleled gratitude to you.  I proposed at the top of our mountain and like I had hoped, she absolutely adored the ring that David so finely crafted!     I have had the opportunity to bring Marcie up to speed with the story behind how the ring was created just for her, and she enjoyed that just as much!  

We have been on Cloud 9 since our engagement! Both you and David are truly wonderful people and your hearts shine through the work that you do.  I am so unbelievably grateful with getting to know you; the memory of the process and your warm thoughtfulness will always stay in our hearts. 

Perhaps one day if we find ourselves planning a trip to Canada, we can stop in to say hello!  But until then we would like to leave you with this special moment in our lives that was made possible thanks to you two. With love, Marcie and Travis

  

You have warmed our hearts with your kindness and generous praise.  It has been absolutely lovely working with you Travis, and we are so delighted that Marcie is finally ‘in on it’ and that you two are happily engaged.   Bright blessings and thank you both so much!

From a Cedar Log at Whiskey Gulch

In January of this year Peder contacted us saying he would be interested in designing a ring to be made out of a piece of cedar from a full size cedar log that had washed ashore on his family's water front property at Whiskey Gulch near Homer, Alaska.  Peder’s family has owned the land for a long time and decided to never build on it.  Jessica and Peder spend summers there camping and enjoying the beauty!!

Knowing that we like to have a photograph of the folks we're working with, Peder sent a lovely pic of himself and Jessica noting that she's the pretty girl on the left, he's the bearded fellow on the right. : ) 

David and Peder had some back and forthing about how best to cut wood from the log so it that would be workable and beautiful for Jessica's ring.  

After making its journey from Anchorage to William's Lake, in May, David proceeded to craft that chunk of precious log into an inlay with a featured knot on Birch wood. 

 David's initial cuts into Peder's wood showed up some nice workable knots.  

 skipping ahead a bit, here's a pic of Jessica's ring as a work in progress

 and her finished ring .... 

Earlier this month, Peder writes:

I finally gave Jessica the ring and she absolutely loved it! She was totally surprised and completely blown away by the ring, what it was, where it came from, 

the craftsmanship, etc."

And just the other day, this lovely email from Jessica arrived.

"I wanted to reach out and thank you both for helping Peder Reiland create my engagement/wedding ring. It is a perfect reflection of our love and life together. I have attached some photos from the special moment.  Thank you again for helping to create something that means so much."

Thanks so much Peder and Jessica.

David and I wish you both continued happiness and clear, bright Alaskan skies.

Raphi and Erin's Wedding Day at Two Pony Gardens

 

It's almost exactly a year since we began our conversation with Erin and Raphi.  At the time, Raphi was teaching in St. Petersburg, Russia while Erin was back and forth between visits to Russia and life at home in the US.  It's been a busy year for these two :)   Travelling, working  overseas, planning their wedding, packing up their home and moving across the country ... and now : ) settling in to their new home and Raphi's new teaching position in San Diego.

David and I so enjoyed working with Erin and Raphi. Kind, gentle souls and they are pretty cool too :) They biked 30 miles to their wedding location the day of the ceremony!! I just love that!!!  What a way to go.

We received an email from the newlyweds just recently and they have kindly allowed us to share it along with these lovely photos of their wedding celebration. The photos were taken by Mackenzie Orth, their photographer.  There are hundreds of beautiful photos to choose from ~ I'd like to post them all.  David and I feel so honoured to be invited in to wander through their day in photographs and share in so many beautiful moments ...

From Erin and Raphi  We can't thank you enough for the gorgeous rings that you crafted for us! They are absolutely magical and are so special in their representation of us as individuals and a couple. We had a friend of ours talk about our rings and their design during our ceremony - they have been a conversation topic ever since.

We had our celebration at Two Pony Gardens - a pizza farm just outside of the Twin Cities. There was a dahlia garden, an outdoor pizza oven with freshly-made pizzas, an upbeat Ukrainian band, and most of all our beloved friends and family. The weather was perfect. That morning Raphi and I biked the 30 miles to the farm together, worked with friends and family to get everything set up, took a horse-drawn carriage ride through the woods together, had a wonderful celebration of our love with pizza and dancing, and spent the night in a yurt in the woods. It was magic.  I wanted to send you some photos from our wedding - our lovely photographer Mackenzie Orth did a great job of capturing our special day and celebration.
It was such a pleasure to work with you on designing our rings. Thanks again for being a part of our special day - the part that will stay with us for years to come! Erin and Raphi

Hawaiian Koa, with spiraled Birch and Andean Opal inlays

We are so happy for you both!  Sending dearest love and warmest wishes for your happiness ~ and our sincere thanks for coming to us to help you create your wedding rings.  What a pleasure it's been!  Much love, as ever, Nicola and David.