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It’s always satisfying to see a project take shape and this staircase has been a fun challenge since the beginning stages.  Good friends of mine have included me in designing and building this cherry staircase with iron balusters.  This project was particularly fun because I built all the wood components in my shop and we worked together to refine each detail.   There are a few more details to finish and another balustrade for the lower level stairway which I will post when it is completed.  I always say ‘trust the process’ when working with customers knowing in the end we will have another quality project completed.

Twin Bridges,  Montana is home to Sweetgrass Rods which is headed up by Glenn Brackett, formerly of the RL Winston Rod Co.   Glenn asked me several months ago to work with him in designing and building display fixtures for their new showroom located in Twin Bridges in the beautiful Ruby Valley.   I’ve been part of several commercial display projects in the past but this one stands out.   How do you go about crafting displays for highly talented craftsmen?   I decided to approach this project with a simple goal;  ’honor the craft.’   That became my mantra as I worked on the displays for their exquisite bamboo rods and accessories.    Utilizing ‘blue stain’ lodgepole pine, reclaimed fir flooring and of course, bamboo, the displays took shape and became one of the most pleasurable woodwork experiences of my life.
The team at Sweetgrass Rods is known as the ‘Boo-boys’ and a goal of these master craftsmen is to pass along their knowledge of building fine bamboo rods and of course their passion for fly fishing.   I hope you are able to stop in their place one day, mingle alongside and watch them work, enjoy the smells and sounds of their shop and experience what makes Sweetgrass Rods such a special destination.  Travel safe and enjoy the scenery!

The summer of ‘08 I enjoyed the privilege of working with clients creating a blue-stain pine rail system and front entry doors for their home near Butte, Montana.   As we let the project develop we always found joy in the process,  shared laughter in our conversations and we have become friends as a result.  Thank you Bill and Anna.

The lodgepole ’blue-pine’ used for this project was harvested within sight of their incredible home which is surrounded by the continental divide.  The staining in the lumber is a result of bark beetles that are killing millions of acres of forest in North America.   I’ve worked with beetle killed lumber for several years and I try to utilize reclaimed woods including vertical grain fir, oak and pine timbers from renovation projects in the Butte area.

Late last winter I worked with Maize Hutton designing and creating signs for her recycled silver studio in Butte, Montana.    We managed to complete some very nice work and the sign projects lead the way to create window and studio display cases for her this summer.  One of her ongoing goals is to utilize recycled materials in her work and so that idea was carried through to her displays.  I happened upon some nice chrome rod panel frames at a landfill which became the hardware for her neckboard displays.  I used salvaged lumber from various places in Butte (I’m the village idiot when it comes to this stuff so people are always alerting me to a good stack of discarded wood).  I incorporated the reclaimed wood, some aluminum flat stock and copper and we came up with these displays.  Visit her blog at www.maizehutton.blogspot.com or her e-commerce site www.mommytags.com and see what a recycled silver artist creates!

here’s something really fun .. I’ve been learning to build bamboo fly rods under the guidance of Glenn Brackett,   http://www.sweetgrassrods.com/     I don’t know much about the entire process but I am slowly picking up some of the skills required to make them.  I’ve decided to dedicate a page on this site to this process and I will update that soon.  If you are interested in how to build one I’ll be posting pictures and my limited views of how it is done.  In the meantime, here are a few pictures of the rods I’ve been working on.  At this stage of the process I am unwrapping the string bindings, scraping residual glue and the bamboo enamel of the rod sections .. check back for the updated page and lots more pictures of selecting, splitting, heating, milling and gluing the bamboo.

Check out the ‘learning bamboo’ tab at the top of this page and come along for the initial stages of crafting a bamboo fly rod.

Designed with Maize Hutton this little box is made of reclaimed pine, aluminum and a leather interior.  It stands 6″ tall and has a footprint of 6.25″ wide x 7.25″ long.   The lift out tray is nearly 3.5″ x 4.5″ x 1.5″ deep.  The wood is from an 1860’s building in Uptown Butte and the aluminum is salvaged stock which is riveted with copper pins, distressed and polished by hand.  Proudly created and built in Butte, Montana, the second edition of these fine crafted boxes will be available for purchase in the upcoming weeks in person here and at Maize Hutton’s Studio.    

I should have posted this during the Holiday Season but I figure late is better than never!  This nativity is made of blue stain pine and is about 42 inches tall.   The tallest figure is about 17 inches.

I grew some sunflowers on the corner again this summer and now they are shutting down fast as the first snow of the season arrived yesterday.   So long sunflowers .. hope to see ya next summer!

Since moving to Butte, America I’ve spent a good deal of time renovating my property into a usable studio and gallery space and also doing custom woodwork.   About two years ago a man named Glenn Brackett stopped in and I came to learn he is one of the owners of Sweetgrass Rods.  Now understand, I am a plowboy from South Dakota who lived as a desert rat in Arizona for nearly twenty years before moving to Montana.  Fly fishing and fly rod makers were far from my scope of interest but that has been changing since I met Glenn.   As I’ve come to know some of the ‘Boo Boys’ at Sweetgrass Rods I’ve also been given a fantastic opportunity to learn some basics of fly fishing from Glenn.  I’ve found out how little I know about this sport and just recently caught and released my first trout in the Big Hole River.  I would liken that first catch to a prospector finding flakes of gold .. it is exciting and challenging at once, so in these early days of fall I will be out there, prospecting per se, collecting flakes of gold even if I don’t catch another trout again.

 

Now here is something really cool.  www.Sweetgrassrods.com  is moving into their new production facility and retail space in Twin Bridges, Montana and they hired me to build display racks for their graphite and bamboo rods.  I’ve always been one who admires fine craftsmanship and the Boo Boys take their craft to levels I barely comprehend.  I’ve worked in wood for over 25 years, they work grass,  ’sweet grass’ bamboo.  The precision machining of grass and the attention to detail required to create a fine bamboo rod is an impressive feat.  I highly recommend taking some time to visit their site and enjoy the high level of artisanry they infuse into each hand-crafted rod.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the racks in my studio .. and some of the components used in the process.  The materials are beetle-killed blue pine and reclaimed fir flooring.  I’m also using raw bamboo which is a first for me but a fun learning experience.   The pine was milled near Butte and the flooring was salvaged from an old market that was renovated in recent years.   The displays will be installed in early October so I will post pictures once they are complete and hanging in their new shop.