Ashes to Ashes, Sawdust to Sawdust

 If you have not already guessed from the name of the box it is an urn. Four years ago I lost my Uncle Karl. He was a woodworker through and through. Everything he did revolved around this amazing hobby that I love. People found it hard to understand why he would want to spend so many hours in a dark, damp basement….well I understood…it was his passion. After finding out about his passing I offered to make him a resting place and two years later my Aunt Margie took me up on this offer. “Ashes to Ashes, Sawdust to Sawdust” came to be. Well, on Monday (2/1/10) I lost my Aunt Margie to lung cancer. She will always be remembered and loved for the person she was and greatly missed for the same reasons. Her ashes will be placed in the urn with my uncles so they can once again be together.

The main woods used in the urn are Curly Cherry and Walnut. They were the woods mostly used by my uncle. The stripe going around the urn is Bolivian Rosewood and Paduak. The splines are also Paduak. The legs are Curly Maple and Cocobolo. They are angled to accentuate the angles of the urn. The lid is made from a figured piece of Walnut that I cut into three, reversed the middle section, added thin cherry pieces and glued back together. Reversing the middle piece changed the “light and dark” aspects of the walnut so that it pulled your eye over the curve of the lid. The spire on the lid is made from Bubinga. It was cut using a compound cut technique on a scroll saw. My Uncle loved making the 3D reindeer on his scroll saw and bandsaw (if you have ever watched a Carter Bandsaw demo at a woodworking show you know what I am talking about). I lined the interior of the urn with 220 sandpaper so he would feel at home. Finish is a BLO/Varnish/Mineral Spirits wipe and then waxed. The entire design of the urn was based on my interpretation of an Egyptian arc.