Ok, this really doesn't have much of anything to do with wheels, paddles, or skis, apart from the fact that I have been working pretty much non-stop on these worship pieces for the last few days and haven't even had time to ride or paddle. Some months ago I agreed to make a set of worship furniture for a youth event at Luther College. Well like usually happens with me, I did give it quite a bit of thought, I even made the large free standing cross a month ago (well to be completely honest it is not free standing yet-- but it well be!)I decided to confine myself more-or-less to things that were left over from lasts year's serve weather. The wood for the cross came form the Cedar River which flooded, and for the rest I decided to use the wood from a maple tree that blew down at the Center. The problem was, that apart from a large section of the trunk of the maple tree that I used for the top of the altar, the rest was sawn up into firewood sized pieces. That meant finding a way to join the pieces together in a way that would both look good and would be functional. (The top of the altar weighs about 150 pounds, so the base has to be both strong and stable.)
I am happy with the baptismal font stand. The font itself will be a vessel of some sort (I have not seen it yet) that was savaged from Parkersburg last year after the tornado. I am still deciding if I am happy with the altar. I wanted both of these pieces to have a sense of destruction and recreation in them, so there are both sanded and finished surfaces, and split surfaces. The altar base seems a little clunky to me, but it will be good enough for next week, and after that I will either get used to it or rework it later :-)
