365 Days of Wood

For an entire calendar year I challenged myself, daily, to design and create a 4 inch x 4 inch wooden animal. Each day I would sketch an animal onto a 4 inch square piece of poster board. Every animal was designed to touch all four sides of that 4 inch square. Once I was happy with the layout I turned the piece of poster board into a stencil and transferred it onto a 3/8 inch- ¼ inch thickness of whatever-wood-was-handy; reclaimed wood, “free” bins of wood around the neighborhood, furniture people were throwing out, even the sides of my work table weren’t safe (those sides weren’t necessary anyway). I then utilized my favorite tool in the world- a scroll saw- to fabricate each creature. Daily they were made, and as accountability, daily they were posted online. At the end of each month I took a group shot of the animals created there in. These shots got more and more ambitious. One month I set them out to sea, another I hiked the 22 miles through the Enchantment Lakes in Washington with them, I even tried to get them suspended in mid-air using helium balloons but, well, it would have taken a heck of a lot of balloons.

I got everything I wanted out of this project and so much more. I learned things about myself, I learned things about others, I learned things about setting goals and sticking to them no matter what. I can honestly say making these little guys changed my life. Because it did.

See the entire collection & shop for your own here!