What to Do with Wood and a Few Extra Holes Laying Around

February 28. 2019

I’ve been obsessed with wood lately  . . . and drilling holes into wood. If you haven’t done it before, you may want to try it, but wear your goggles (or your readers if you prefer). And don’t wear your ugg boots as the sawdust is really hard to get off of them.

As I was drilling my latest wood bud vases, my head went to other things I could make with wood and holes. Of course, napkin rings were the first thing I thought of, because I've been rather obsessed with napkins as well--the cloth kind.

Anyway, prototype No. 1 was quite bulky and rather looked like a 2 x 4 sitting on the table. In all fairness, it was a 2 x 4 trimmed down with a little paint thrown on it.

I looked through my wood scraps and found something thinner with potential. I quickly marked out some rough cut lines and headed to the tool headquarters, also known as Dear Husband’s “overflow” room.

From there, I cut the pieces to size, drilled the holes, and sanded out the splinters. And I learned a wonderful trick along the way: If you are drilling a wide hole all the way through the wood, put another piece of wood under your block to be drilled, so the drill bit doesn’t freak out when it hits the small metal stand. You never know when this information could come in handy—hold on to it.

After painting the sample pieces, I hit a little stump. WHAT would I stamp on them? For my vases, I added a single word that was important to the individual buying it. But napkin rings were a whole other thing. Yes, you can always add the words that everyone plasters all over: love, believe, faith, hope . . . blah blah blah. Now I do love those words too, but I also like words that are more unique to a particular occasion.

So I thought it would be fun to use words that you would say to someone when you invite them to a table . . . 

Thus, prototype No. 2.

Will I make more of these? I have no idea. Sometimes we need to let our imaginations play and see what we come up with.

Everything we spend time on should not have to be for school, or for work, or for money, or for any reason except for the pleasure of creating.

We were made to create and explore. And then create some more.

So . . . what are you waiting for?