Working with Wood Slabs
Are there right ways and wrong ways to work with wood and slabs? Yes. Are they restrictively specific? Usually not. Is there room for error? Typically, yes. Is there a learning curve? Most definitely, especially if you want to do it right. Is it difficult? No, but it does take time and effort…a lot of both! There is a lot of good information out there if you look for it…I do it all the time.
What helps more than anything is imagination. Use your imagination and come up with something cool. Many times I have been at our slab storing and curing location and picked out a slab to do something with and the wife asked what are you going to do with it? And I say…I don’t know but it is a neat looking slab, I will think of something. Other times it just jumps out at you and you know instantly what to do with it. I have friends that are much better at creating stuff than I am, we even collaborate on projects some time and it turns out awesome. Sometimes I do something and after a lot of time has been spent I think…..that was the stupidest idea EVER! What was I thinking? The goal is to keep that to a minimum…seriously…it gets expensive.
Most importantly, don’t let fear prevent you from trying. Fear profits you nothing and accomplishes nothing. If you look at the Gallery of our website you will see an Ornamental Iron Bed Frame that I built for my wife a couple of years ago. I did multiple drawings over months and finally decided to start on it. During the fabricating process I changed things up multiple times as ideas came to me and my imagination ran away…sometimes, far…far, away and I would have to reign myself in. I did not really know what I was going to do on the wood so I talked to a good friend of mine that is a master woodcarver, gave him a very broad idea of one of my wife’s favorite series of books, and let him handle it. It just so happened that it was also one of his favorite books. By the way when collaborating with others make sure it is someone you know and trust, in my case it worked out perfectly. The most difficult part was not letting my wife know what I was working on for months…after all, it was her Christmas present that year and it was my first bed frame build.
As you can see from the pictures in our gallery the bed frame turned out beautiful…so much so that the wife threatened my life if I were to sell it…not that I would do that….ever again….believe me, it is not worth the wrath that will follow…yikes! The point to this Blogg is this, don’t be afraid to try, do your research, use your imagination, put in the time, put forth the effort, do the work, learn from your mistakes, be creative and make something incredible. Here at Texas Ironwood Furniture, we can provide the live edge slabs, steel or ornamental legs and or bases and other services for your custom project
And if you do not want to do it yourself contact us and we will build it for you.
The main thing is to have fun and be safe.
