28 woods.

As I've mentioned many times before, use of woods in woodworking is a way to become familiar with the trees that grow in our forests, and many woodworkers are also conservationists and advocates for preservation of the natural world that surrounds us. The woods are a window. Each species has a special role within the ecosystem, and each had special usefulness in human life before humanity fell so much in love with artificiality and ignorance of the natural world.

Yesterday and the day before, I began cutting small samples of various woods to use in collector boxes I will call "Choirings of the trees." They are designed to resemble small chapels, and each will include a display of 28 small turned samples of our Ozark woods. Just combing through my shop and barn, I came up with 26 different species. Two others I got from friends, "Osage Orange" and beech, bringing the total in my possession to 28.

I hope to have these small chapels of wood finished before September when I have a visit from members of the American Folk Art Museum in New York. And I hope to make a number more of these over the next few years for various museums if I can get any of them to take an open mind toward our American forests.

The strips of wood in the photo above will be cut into small pieces and turned on the lathe to the general shape of tiny people. The wood on the jointer is Osage Orange, also called Bois D'Arc. It was the last sample to be acquired for my small collection.

Make, fix, create, and extend to others the opportunity to learn likewise.