How About Sculptures from Reclaimed Treasures

What I really have fun doing is to try and create unique sculptures from reclaimed wood. To me this is an interesting challenge, looking at a piece of cypress that has been eaten away hundreds of years ago by fungus and trying to figure out what it could look like finished. I now have an appreciation for what sculptors go through in their creation process. No, I am not a sculptor, but it is fun going through the process. All of my work shown here is deadhead cypress which I obtained from my friends at Bruner Lumber.

This is the end of a pecky cypress log, sliced to 2 inches and very rough.

And here is the finished sculpture, with a metal base from my friend Mack.

These were quite the visual challenge.

The left one was turned into a lazy susan.

The right one made into a large appetizer platter. Sure these are not sculptures, but then the brain went this way instead.

Back to cypress sculptures:

This cypress piece I found half buried. After the first power wash, it was ready for sanding.

And here is the final 60" sculpture with a metal base.

Pecky cypress round sculpture #1

Pecky cypress round sculpture #2

Pecky cypress round sculpture #3

Pecky cypress round sculpture #4

40" rectangular pecky cypress sculpture #5

And here they are, all dressed and ready for the ball.

When I started doing sculptures, I found that I needed to have an artistic metal person to work with for my bases and other metal needs. Luckily I found Mack Corley who runs Mack Metal Art in Panama City. He did the above bases, a real boring and simple job for an artist like Mack, who does great metal art work for houses - gates, railings, wall mounts, table bases, etc.
Here is my friend Mack with an idea for a plant bracket and table bases in his truck.

And finally, here is the latest cypress sculpture from the end piece of a pecky log. This one is 4" thick and I refer to is as the "boss hog." I reclaimed this from the bottom of a stack of lumber, being used as a spacer.

Well, that's it for now. Hope you enjoyed another tour of Mother Nature's reclaimed treasures. Here's an idea: if you have an old favorite tree that has passed away and would like to keep some of it as a memory, why not have your local tree man cut some to make a table top, stump table, stool, or a sculpture. Then it can live forever.

Remember: "Around each corner lies a new adventure."

John "Gabby" Gabrielson
Natural Creations
Miramar Beach, Florida
johngabrielson5@gmail.com