I have several different interests.....

[philter4]

Besides my animals (see my post in New Member Introductions, https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=477666) for a little background, I also scuba dive and collect all of my own marine tropical fish. I have travelled the tropics collecting both fresh and salt water fish and inverts for my aquariums. Along with that I also turn wood, making pens and pencils, along with very decorative tool handles and things like that, here is a photo of some of my pens.

Another thing I do is to make scale models of places I've been, here are a few of photos, the first of an Indian river scene, the bird in the photo is about 2 inches tall, and the second is a South African scene of a bush pig and a pair of yellow backed duiker. Everything in the photo is made from clay paper paint and wire, the scale is 1:22 (1 inch on the model is 22 inches in life) and the third is a photo of some of the plants I make for the background and landscaping, my favorite plants are palms so there are a lot of them.

 

[nivtup]

Very creative work

 

[spotstealer]

Beautiful work! I'm just dabbling into turning. I will eventually turn other things, but I do lures right now.

 

[galanie]

The pens are lovely but those scale models.. WOW!

 

[andalusn]

It's all very cool

 

[dadsdeercamp]

you are a verry talented person.

 

[philter4]

Quote:
I have thought of making lures and bird calling whistles. I would love to see some of your lures why don't you post some photos? My favorite woods are burls, and I like the afzalia the best. It is a medium sized hardwood tree from Africa so it is hard to find large pieces of burl since the tree doesn't grow very big. I use pieces that come from both hardwood and sapwood, giving it 4 different colors, red, yellow, grey and black. Pieces like this are expensive, I have paid up to $100 for a piece that only made a single pen, but normally it costs about $30 per pen and I can buy regular afzalia burl for around $2 per piece but the 4 colored pieces are just so much nicer. In the photo all of the colored pieces in the top row up to the white ones (which are different species of antler such as mule and white tailed deer, moose, elk and caribou) are afzalia and the last one is 40 pieces of wood cut into jigsaw puzzle pieces put together and then turned which I will never do again.

It is getting to be warm here, and I have property in FL so I will be going back and forth between CA and FL for the rest of the year so the pen and model making get put on hold during nice weather, but I still turn occasionally, especially in the cool evenings. I only started turning 2 years ago but I have gotten so much better in that time. I turn for a group that donates pens to Wounded Warriors and we donated 10,000 pens to care packages to soldiers overseas last holiday season. There are 800 of us around the country and the leaders of the group set the goals for the year, the rest of us are just cheap labor. How long have you been turning wood? Do you show or sell your lures? Have you ever fished with them? Sorry for all the questions but I really enjoy wood turning, I don't want to do it for a living but I do sell some of my pens. If I was smart (which no one has ever accused me of being) I would change careers and make my hobby pay my bills!

Nivtup, Galanie, Andalusn, and Dadsdeercamp, thanks for the kind words, and I'm glad you like the models and pens.

 

[galanie]

Quote:
I've made things of wood to sell since woodworking is one of my hobbies and doing it for money took all the fun out of it. I guess it was the monotony of making the same things over and over that did it for me. I was making door harps and those things sold like hot cakes but I quit because it was just no fun.

Others do it different though, and with your talents, you could make all sorts of things eventually! I can easily see that you don't mind making jillions of pens from your display. Which are wonderful! I don't even want to know how you got the one that looks like jigsaw puzzle pieces LOL. I've made a few pens myself and it is an art form for sure.

 

[philter4]

Quote:
I've made things of wood to sell since woodworking is one of my hobbies and doing it for money took all the fun out of it. I guess it was the monotony of making the same things over and over that did it for me. I was making door harps and those things sold like hot cakes but I quit because it was just no fun.

I actually own a business which is my biggest hobby, I collect and sell exotic animals, mostly to zoos and public aquariums but also to private collectors. In my introduction I (new members forum, "Hi My Name is Phil") I list a few of the things I keep and breed like servals and caracals but I do it for more of a love of animals rather then for the money. This business has given me the opportunity to travel all over the world to see the animals in their native habitats, and until I got sick (in 1998 I had a multi-organ transplant and then in March 2010 I had a second one so I'm not working or travelling right now) I was keeping a mini zoo at the house, now I only have the birds to care for, but soon I will be back to working with different animals. If I actually worked out my hourly wage and the lack of free time (everyone here knows that live animals don't go on vacations or stay home when the weather is bad or you are sick) I would probably cry. Still, the pens and models relax me, I don't have to think too hard, just concentrate on the tools I am using and it gives me a break from all the other things going on at the time.

 

[Alicia G]

Amazing pens, You are very talented. It must have been breath taking to go to those exotic places! You must have a real passion for animals and your artwork.