Part Of Me

I had a phone call before Christmas, it came kind of out the blue, from my cousin Margaret ! She follows my blog, she needed a mantle to finish off a fireplace for a woodstove  . We decided on oak and the rest was up to me...
After lots of phone calls, emails, and visits to Sawmills, I found the timber that would work for me in a small Sawmill.

After I got it home the bark was taken off , and it was planed by hand then sanded to clean it up . Hidden under its weathered exterior was some pretty remarkable pippy oak patterns.

  But the after the sanding that wasn't me finished I had plans for something a bit more special . My cousin lives over in Islay . Where my Mother and most of my family hails from , Whisky brought us out to the mainland from Islay many years ago . When my older brother needed to go to the deaf school in Edinburgh, my Father was transferred from Port Ellen Distillery to Saint Magdalenes Distillery in Linlithgow . I never lived on the island but it has always been a huge part of my life . So I asked if she would like something carved into the mantle and it was decided to have the outline of the island.
so after finding an outline that would work in the space I started to carve away all the material that was around Islay after this I felt it still needed a little something so a little seagull shape seemed to work with the design then after lots and lots of sanding and some wax . Here it is ready for its journey over the sea to the Queen of the Hebrides, that is the Isle of Islay... This really was a labour of love ;)