Douglas Fir

The other day I showed you the Douglas Fir cone that I was fusing. The reason I was making this was to give as a gift to a friend and member of our small group, S.T.A.S.H. She is moving to the Washington D.C. area to be with her significant other. I know she will love the museums and art and all the great things to see and do back there, but we will miss her!

I wanted to make a small piece that would remind her of Oregon and the beautiful Northwest. She is a bicycler and hiker and skier, so I know that she will miss this country.

Tonight our group is going out to dinner to wish her a safe journey and extend our good wishes. I will give this piece to her tonight, so I think I can safely post it here today without spoiling the surprise.

The Douglas Fir is a magnificent tree, that also happens to be the state tree of Oregon. I added a suggestion of water and beach to represent both the mighty Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean. One idea I had was to attach some small flat rocks I picked up at the beach, but they didn't really do a lot for me when I laid them on the unfinished piece. In fact the whole thing looked a little dull. I tweaked the color a bit and while my original idea had been to finish the piece with no binding, in the end I liked what the bit of checked binding did to liven it up. A piece of twig seemed like the finishing touch. I hope she likes it and I hope she will be happy in her new home.