Andrew's View of the Week

Just Finished — From the Shop

Posted on 01/30/2026 by Andrew Reynolds

Around here it’s been too cold to do much outside so I’ve been in the shed doing some scroll saw work. The shed is my only heated woodworking space and it’s limited to small tools, like my scroll saw and marquetry work. Here is a fun projects:

They are bunny rabbit napkin rings. I’m cutting these out of some poplar I salvaged from an old drawer. I don’t remember where I got the pattern, but I’m planning on making about 15 of these. I’ll make some napkins to go in them and likely sell them at the church’s autumn quilt sale.

Here’s a more difficult project I’ve been working on:

This is a filigree cross and I made two by stack cutting:

This second still has the pattern attached. Basically you stack two pieces of wood together and cut them as a unit — kind of a two for one sale, cut once, get two. The wood is a walnut veneer over an MDF core. It’s cheaper and more stable than solid walnut (it won’t warp due to humidity changes).

I’ve made these before and I just love the pattern. This is the third set of these I’ve cut. I wanted to have these done by last Easter, but now they’re just in time for this Easter. I still have to get all the pattern and tape off these and make stands for them. No idea what I am going to do with them. I might give them to friends and I just might keep one for me.

The first time I cut this pattern was just after I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and I found the process of making them to be meditative and reassuring. The second time I made these was at about five years after radiation treatment when the docs declared that I was in remission. Over the last few years there has been a concern that I might be heading for a recurrence so I decided it was time to cut another set.

It takes about 50 hours to cut the pattern — there are a couple of hundred holes — I tried to count once but lost track around 70 holes. Each hole is very small and I have to work with a magnifying lamp and very small blades. Still, I find the process to be prayerful, meditative and oddly relaxing.

And so far there is no medical evidence that my prostate cancer has recurred, but the doctor does have me on a close watch. So much fun.

Anyway that’s if from the shop — if you need me I’ll be in the shed trying to find that block of maple I bought to make the bases.

Posted in woodworking | Tagged cancer, filgree cross, health, Prostate Cancer, quilts, scroll saw, wood working | 27 Comments

I Wrote a Poem

Posted on 01/19/2026 by Andrew Reynolds

It’s been a long time, but I finally finished a poem.

Those Shoes

Art pointed them out to me.
Art the poet, the old redwood tree, the old wisdom whispering in the wind.
Art as in a man, a creative spirit, a muse, a disturber of the peace.
Art that creative discipline that evades me most days.

On a low black stool, lit by the amber light of the old windows.
Light that can only have come through a bright sun filtered through that special amber yellow glass that inhabits buildings built in the 1920s forming shafts of light creating a monochrome kaleidoscope dusty spotlight.
Light made from memories of Sunday School classes.
Light hiding a child’s game of hide and seek in our Sunday best.
Light of that clip-on bowtie that I lost to my youth.
Light filtered through the cigarette smoke forbidden in the halls of a Methodist church.

The stool I didn’t see until Art pointed it out.
I saw the harpist put it there, in the light.
The harpist who had just played in the Christmas cantata.
The harpist who’s notes I had barely heard through the headset in my audio booth.
I regretted not pointing another microphone her way.
I regretted not having a control to make the sound look like the amber monochrome kaleidoscope spotlight shining on …

Her shoes.
Black high-heeled ankle boots with a touch of lace at the top.
Worn for the performance but now abandoned.
Not seen but needed for the formal concert.
Now cast aside for the comfort of white running shoes as the harp glides by in a wheeled case.

Around the room, musicians put instruments away, talk and greet audience.
I don’t speak, my hands just moved over the recording controls trying to capture a moment.
The music around me is never the same as it is in the headphones over my ears.
I feel the need to apologize to the harpist, the percussionist, the second violin section — your music was in the air but my net could not capture it.

Then there is the monochrome kaleidoscope dusty spotlight shining on a pair of black high-heeled ankle boots with a touch of lace at the top.
Abandoned, set aside, as the music flows from crescendo to memory.

Art, the muse, the disturber of the peace, touches my arm.
“There’s a poem.”
He points to the shoes.

Now I regret not taking the picture when instinct told me to.
Now I regret that I only have words to describe the poem my eyes saw.

Posted in Poems | Tagged poem, Poetry, writing | 10 Comments

Holiday Woodworking

Posted on 12/28/2025 by Andrew Reynolds

Happy Holidays! I haven’t been posting lately. I had a bit of surgery a few weeks ago and am now getting back into stuff. Not for anything serious, just needed to be done.

After our summer kitchen remodel we have a bit of left over materials and Heather wanted me to make her a plant stand. I took a couple of extra cabinet shelves and made this for her:

Not fine furniture, but it will hold plants and is the same material our cabinets are made of. Here’s another view:

I just finished it today and I expect by the time I finish this post she’ll have plants on it. The picture on the wall is one Heather painted a while ago of Lake Tahoe.

The next project is a shelf for our coffee supplies. Current plan is to use some of the baseboard and crown molding leftovers to create something. Pictures next time.

That’s it for this week. More next time and if you need me, I’m either at the doctor’s office or rummaging through the scrap pile in my shop.

Posted in woodworking | Tagged happy holidays, Plant stand | 34 Comments

Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted on 11/25/2025 by Andrew Reynolds

I’ve not been posting much lately. My energy level for writing is very low at the moment, but I thought I’d post a couple of pictures of my deck project. I finished the main deck but haven’t finished the roof on the Gazebo:

Under the green tarp are the parts to finish the roof. I might not finish this before the winter sets in hard, but I might get a clear afternoon or two to work on it.

Here’s a close up of the deck material I used: