Cast Bronze Head Stick
The first stick I ever made. I really never intended to make a stick at all. At the time I was an undergrad sculpture student just trying to make art . The head of the stick was a cast bronze head study of a young woman I had done for class. After I had it for a while it occurred to me that it might make a cool head for a walking stick. I then promptly forgot about it for almost a year. Around that time I was at this jewelry supply place and noticed this piece of wood on the shelf. It was 1"square and 36" long and it was unusually heavy. I asked the owner what it was and he said it was Cocabolo. I looked at the wood more carefully and saw some interesting grain and it had a smell that reminded me of something that I couldn't quite place. I bought it .......I had found the other half of the stick.
Turning the shaft was a life altering experience. (This all occurred around 1970. What with me being a hippy, long haired sculptor you can imagine the sorts of mind alerting stuff I was into. There were however two things I never did in an altered state. I never worked with machinery because it was to dangerous and I never read books because I'd fall asleep). During the times just before the turning I had discovered a new sci/fi author. Frank Herbert's Dune was amazing. The planet Arakis, the Freemen,their dessert, the giant worms and the ever present spice. Spice the life blood at the very heart of existence for the dessert planet and all of its people. I remember starting to turn this exotic wood and as the dust swirled around me there was this sweet pungent spicy? aroma. At that exact instant I was no longer on Earth but in a cloud of spice on the surface of Dune. From that day on I was in love with exotic hardwoods and I became a lifelong cane maker.