My Love My Everything

Back in October of 2015 we had the pleasure of working with a lovely young couple from France; Kajana and Johann.  They designed and commissioned Dark Hawaiian Koa rings with Bamboo interior liners and inlays of Lapis,Turquoise and Tibetan stone. Kajana's ring bears the beautiful inscription "mon amour tout pour moi" which translates to "My Love My Everything".

Just the other day we had a sweet note from Johann and three lovely photos from their wedding.

Kajana and I got married on the 30th of January. Everything went perfectly and I would like to share with you a couple of pictures from this moment.

We really love the rings you and your husband crafted for us ! Thank you again for the great experience :-)

Much love from France. 

Johann & Kajana 

  

And Much Love to both of you ~ and from David and I.

Thanks so much Johann and Kajana!!

We wish you both tremendous happiness in the days and years to come.

Spring in slow motion

Since early in 2005, I have kept two separate blogs.  'The Homestone' where we post photographs of the changing seasons on our 48 acre homestead, and this blog (The Warmth of Wood) which has been devoted primarily to the work we do and the folks we work with.  I have decided to combine the two blogs.  I'll just post here from now on; on our Touch Wood Blog, and on our Facebook page; Touch Wood Rings, 48 Acres.    

With that, I'll share my final 'Homestone' post published earlier today.

Today is the last day of March! Spring is just now springing from the snow packed ground. The melt has begun and the birds are returning.  The male Red Winged Blackbirds have been joined now by the females and their mellifluous conversations fill this 48 acre bowl we call the meadow. 

Our early Canada Geese are back.  Yesterday the most magical thing happened ... I was standing outside when I could hear them honking from over a mile away. As they flew over the house and out toward the hay field, I said "hello you guys welcome back" and they did an abrupt turn around and flew back over top of me ... so low... closer than I've ever had them come to me in flight ... I knew it was their hello.  

Spring really is nothing short of miraculous!!  It's so amazing to be witness to the natural world waking up from winter, a world we know so well after all these years.

We watch for the first Dandelion.  And yesterday, there she was ~ her yellow flower open to the sun.

There have been a few ducks dropping by but the creek is still frozen in lots of spots and the hay field hasn't yet turned it's snow pack into the temporary lake we look forward to. 
The warmth of spring is quite a bit later this year than last.  We enjoy the slow melt to spring ~ the slower it goes the more we can enjoy the change of season.  

For those of you who don't frequent Facebook and other social media outlets; I want to share a new braided inlay design recently commissioned by a lovely couple in Colorado and recently posted on Touch Wood, 48 Acres.

Mesquite Rings with Oak interior liners and Coffee Wood inlays bordering Braided Hemp ~ commissioned by and created for Randal and Eva.

Here's an excerpt from the lovely letter they wrote when they received their rings:
"Our rings are unbelievably beautiful, truly beyond our expectations. The hemp braided inlay looks incredible and fits so well with the overall design and chosen woods. We could not be happier!!

This has been such an incredible and unique experience/process and we cannot express our gratitude enough. You are both such wonderful people and we are so pleased to have gotten to know you. You serve as more of an inspiration to us than I think you realize, and have given us the confidence of knowing off-the-grid living is achievable and can be quite fulfilling. We wish you both the very best and hope to keep in touch!"

Thanks so much Randal and Eva!  David and I wish you every happiness in the days and years to come, with much love.

And so it goes. New Touch Wood Rings for lovely humans and a 'slow motion' spring on the meadow. We are so fortunate to be living where we live, to be making a living with this work we do and to be sharing it with you.
  
I look forward to having you revisit us here at our Warmth of Wood Blog and invite you to join us on social media.
You'll find us on Facebook, Pinterest and on Instagram

As always, thanks so much for stopping by.

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.