This was my dog Molly, who died of a mast cell cancer two years ago. I got Molly because my most beloved dog Carlo was getting old, and I was succession planning. I knew that when Carlo died, I would never get out of bed unless I had another dog to feed and care for- the Plan B dog. So I went to the Pound to find Plan B. Molly was the saddest dog at the Pound. She was lying in a puddle of urine and had just given up. She wasn't selling herself or responding to overtures from anyone. The Pound workers said she was medically OK, but just heartbroken and waiting to die. So I took her home, and in 2 days she was a bouncy, obnoxious, completely submissive dog. She was always a second-class citizen in our house- Carlo was always everyone's favorite and Molly lived in her shadow. And poor Mo was abused badly by our lovebird, Humper (see picture below). When Carlo died, she fulfilled her function- I had to get up and feed her and love her, and she helped me be OK.
And then she got cancer and died only a few years after Carlo. We decided to put her down before she got really sick, which the vet said was only days away after the chemo failed (yes, we did dog chemotherapy. We're those people). She was days or weeks from an agonizing painful death from an angry mast cell tumor. So we had Dr. Death come to the house to do it. And Molly ran to the door wagging to greet him, and that felt awful. We had waited too long to put Carlo down, and she was miserable and scared and hurting, and we didn't want to do that to the Mo. But it was terrible- one minute she was a dancing happy dog and the next she was dead. And she had become so much more than Plan B. She was my sweet girl and I miss her. We made a box for her ashes, and it's on the mantel with our other dogs.
New Box News:
The Octobox! This one was tough- but worth it, I think. We attached the bottom legs (carving and sanding all those tentacles was a LOT of work) and the side tentacles, and then thought it needed a base for stability, so added a spalted pecan base to match the top, which is really lovely. It turned out even better than I thought it would, and I thought it would be pretty great. I'd love to put this one in the East Austin Studio Tour gallery show, but it is one inch too tall and wide to meet their small size criteria. The box and tentacles are grenadillo, base and top are spalted pecan (with some turquoise inlay in the top, and a bone lid lift.
And I've been away from carving boxes for a while (too busy playing with glass), but I had a gorgeous piece of spalted maple with some pink streaks running through it, and it felt like time to pick up my mallet and chisel again. I shaped it into this teardrop-like figure, and filled all the natural little worm holes with turquoise. It's on a base of spalted maple. I know it's easier to get symmetrical round shapes with a lathe, but I can't seem to like lathe work. It's not as satisfying as whacking at wood with a mallet until a shape emerges, and the imperfect symmetry is sometimes really quirky and pleasing in the carved boxes. It's all coming together like it always seems to do- it's just hard to remember that when you're looking at a beautiful solid block of unique wood and thinking, "all I can do is eff this up."
I also thought it needed some texture, so I studded the base with agate beads with some blue in them to bring out the turquoise (they're still rough, as you can see). I definitely like this effect. It will get a colored glass top to highlight the pink in the wood and the turquoise.
I also thought it needed some texture, so I studded the base with agate beads with some blue in them to bring out the turquoise (they're still rough, as you can see). I definitely like this effect. It will get a colored glass top to highlight the pink in the wood and the turquoise.
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