There is a man named Parag Chowdhury. He professes about hearts and viscera and other anatomical and physiological science out in California. It’s also his birthday this weekend.

I met Parag back at the small liberal arts Hendrix College in Arkansas back in the 90s. The older brother of my good friend Pritam (now an archaeologist), I’d mostly see him at parties – first in the dorms, and later at the “log cabin.” Parag was and is – hands down – the smartest, coolest motherfucker I’ve ever met. Incidentally, his influence over the years as he forged his path through science and life had a major impact on the trajectory of my own career in the biomedical sciences. So when his wife Julia @juleschools asked if I’d consider making something for his big bday, I was immediately all in.

I designed and built this heart over the course of two months from South American bloodwood (the heart chambers), African padauk (the oxygenated vessels), and Central
American purpleheart (the deoxygenated vessels), all cut by hand on a scrollsaw. Those coronary arteries were… not easy. The background is American curly maple. Obviously some artistic liberties were taken. The padauk and purpleheart will darken dramatically with UV/oxidation over time. But the bloodwood should remain red, which is why I chose it for the heart itself.

I got my PhD studying the genetics of cardiogenesis (heart development)… holy crap like 17 years ago now . So the heart has additional importance to me, especially given that my own heart has… issues. For this reason I actually made 2 of them. One for Parag and one for me.

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“Yoda” wood intarsia. Hand cut on a scrollsaw. All natural wood colors. No paints or stains.
I first saw The Empire Strikes Back when it came out on vhs tape sometime between 1984-1987 when I was 7-10 yrs old. My wife @tam_a_ryn wasn’t even born yet! I wasn’t quite 3 when it came out in theaters in 1980. Actually, the original Star Wars and I were both “released” the same year (‘77).
The entire concept behind Yoda – this wizened, ugly, ridiculous little frog man who is actually a powerful warrior/space wizard – was both hilarious and mind-blowing to my impressionable young brain. I learned several incredibly important lessons watching (and rewatching and rewatching) “ESB”:
1) “Size matters not!” I was a very small kid – the shortest boy in like every single class until 7th grade. So I took this to heart. I’m thankful I never developed “little man syndrome” overcompensating with aggression. Perhaps I have Yoda at least partially to thank for this?
2) Do not judge a book by its cover. Again… ugly little green weirdo = great Jedi warrior.
3) Wisdom can be expressed with both extreme silliness and deep gravitas. I doubt I was aware I was learning this lesson. But I’d wager that my personality containing a fair mix of both irreverent humor and (I hope) some existential wisdom can be traced at least to some degree to this ridiculous little puppet voiced by the great Frank Oz.

I built this for myself. It is not for sale and I don’t take commissions.

Built from London plane, elm, holly, white oak, ebony, walnut, purpleheart, bloodwood, padauk, wenge, and an endangered wood I’ve decided not to advertise (I don’t want to increase demand. This is from an old turning block I’ve been saving).
Soundboard: @adafruit

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Nuthatch & Chickadee.
Handmade wall art to adorn our bedroom wall along with my previously made song sparrow.
All cut by hand with a scrollsaw and chisel from a variety of wood species. No paint or stain. See my previous posts for more details and the story highlight on my profile, which documented the whole process.

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This is “Sir Rano Ham,” the beloved fuzzy little hamster-son of our friends Hailey and Mitch (@haileyherdlinger@roguetripusa). @tam_a_ryn and I recently pet-sat him while they went on vacation for 2 weeks. They had told us that he was slowing down, having some troubles, and might not have long on this earth. He was ~4 years old and they typically live 2-3 years. Wouldn’t you know it, he decided to shuffle off this mortal wheel in his sleep at our house, literally as they were hours away coming home to retrieve him. Needless to say, we were all pretty devastated. So obviously I had to immortalize him in wood.

Handcut with a scrollsaw and built from mahogany, honey locust heartwood (pinkish) and sapwood (whitish), holly (regular and blue-spalted), walnut, apple, and wenge.

Please note: I do not take commissions.

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If you live in Pittsburgh, you know this iconic structure. It’s the Frick Gatehouse that serves as one of the entrances into our gorgeous Frick Park. My buddy Joseph Parente (@josephparente) restored its roof.

He also fixed our roof twice, purely out of the kindness of his heart. Last year he came out and patched our roof after he saw a story I posted complaining about our leak. The first time he fixed it, we hadn’t even met in person – only through IG! Obviously he’s a truly great person. He mainly does cool historic roofing/restoration using things like fancy copper work that I know nothing about. So I decided a long while back that he needed a wooden artwork in appreciation. It took me forever to figure out what to make, but once I saw him work on this structure, I had the answer! I gather that he put a lot into landing this gig and it seemed like something he was particularly proud of.
Unfortunately, the bridge next to the gatehouse collapsed last year, making national news in the process (it happened literally hours before the President’s infrastructure bill speech*). Swipe to see the Pres in front of it. Miraculously, the gatehouse was totally unharmed! But it also meant I could no longer get to it for photos. So this piece is based on fuzzy photos I found online.
Made mostly from local wood scavenged myself – mostly storm-felled sycamore from nearby Schenley Park. It also has a bit of nearly extinct black stinkwood from an antique South African chair. Also holly, walnut, apple (thanks @afonticiella), crabapple, elm, wenge, sapele, basswood, and curly maple. Obviously the green is dyed. All the rest is natural. With copper foil on some pieces.
I hope you enjoy it, brother!

*political comments will be deleted/blocked. IG and art is where I come to escape all that. General comments on the state of our bridges is acceptable

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What’s funny is I had already intended on making her a small stormtrooper magnet. But after her act of kindness, she got an upgrade.
May the force be with y’all!

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My IG friends Megan and Austin (@magicalmeg90 and @rebelartdesign) were lucky enough to attend this years Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, CA. Out of the kindness of her heart, Megan asked me if I wanted a silly “I hate sand” Anakin beach towel from the convention after I commented on her story. She quickly shipped it from Cali and cemented herself in my “good people” book (swipe to end). In return, I made her a little wooden stormtrooper helmet artwork, using the first SW design I ever cut. I gave that first one away years ago to my buddy Jordan @scrapforge, so I decided to make myself one as well.
Theirs is made from African padauk and purpleheart. Mine (shown in vid) is padauk and wenge. Handcut on scrollsaw. I expect the contrast on hers will pop a little more with time as the padauk darkens.

What’s funny is I had already intended on making her a small stormtrooper magnet. But after her act of kindness, she got an upgrade.
May the force be with y’all!

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“Power. I have it. They don’t. This bothers them.”

Buffy the Vampire Slayer. All natural wood color, no paint or stain.

After a brutally long work day filled with breast cancer, it’s nice to sit down and post about some fun slayage! I’ve been a massive Buffy/ @sarahmgellar fan for many years, having watched it all many times. Tori Angelini (@toricangelini) and I had a bunch of little interactions over the past few years over random woodworking/art things. But then she let it slip that she’s a massive Buffy fan too, and our conversations sorta snowballed into randomly sent Buffy/geeky things (I seem to have a lot of entertainment interests in common with her hubby @matt.angelini as well). She and @tam_a_ryn also bonded over hot sauces, and she even sent us some hot sauce along with a bunch of her wood/epoxy ornaments for Christmas.
Anyway, I knew I had to do something for her in return, and I wanted to wait long enough for it to be a total surprise. I first thought about making their little one a baby rattle. And then I thought maybe a simplistic Buffy piece for her and an “Appa” for Matt. But the more I thought about it, the more I knew I had to do Buffy and make it rad. I mean Tori is an obsessive fan. A fanatic, even! You should ask her about her experience having a “Cameo” conversation with James Marsters AKA Spike. Kudos to Matt for getting her that!
So I settled on this design I roughly based on the season 1 DVD cover.

Note: I’m intentionally leaving out Joss Whedon discussion in this post. It’s obviously been disappointing. But Buffy still rocks in all her campy, angsty glory.

Made from Bloodwood, mahogany, purpleheart, pine, basswood, ebony, holly, elm, European cherry, and walnut. I think it turned out five by five.

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I’ve been meaning to make an actual post of this for a couple weeks. Long story, short: I lied about not liking this watercolored-sycamore background. It was intended all along as 1 of 2 pieces, the second of which would be given to Luke @cyclocrosscutter. A long time ago in a galaxy… well… here, Luke surprised me with a badass purpleheart and walnut Mjolnir with hand-routered details (swipe). He said I had to make him an intarsia in exchange. So I actually made two versions of Boba’s/Jabba’s Palace. If you look closely at the stories from this build on my profile, you can see that there are actually 2 of each piece. Luckily he’s not that observant. I decided to give him this one, mainly because I figured it’s a bit different from his own work. He could slap a few pieces of different colored wood together for the sky as easily as I can. But I felt like this one was a bit more “artistic”. Everything else is the same, except the palace itself is made from lombardy poplar (not related to construction “poplar” you find at big box stores, which is actually tulipwood) instead of sycamore. And the frame is different because this was all I had that was long enough (it’s roadside walnut firewood salvage). Go to his page to see it hanging on his wall of awesome geeky scrollsaw art.
PS please don’t ask for similar trades. It stressed me out trying to figure out what to make him . I’m not sure it matches Mjolnir in coolness, but at least it does in time invested!

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Jabba’s/Boba’s Palace.
All natural wood colors (no paint or stain).

Note: I’ll be posting multiple versions of this. This one has good lighting/color. But you can’t see the totally superfluous lights, which I’m glad I added! (See previous post).
Built from purpleheart, bloodwood, mahogany, chakte viga, yellowheart, yew, sycamore, walnut, bocote, crab apple, wenge, hickory, Lombardi poplar, and maple.
This was a replacement for a smaller, simpler version I made a few years ago. I think practice has paid off a little. I started this thing 3 months ago, and I’m so glad to be done!

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