It’s been a really busy holiday season for us. My little shop kept me busy working on commissioned pieces as well as adding more work to sell at a little market I participated in. At Thanksgiving my brother-in-law, Brent, asked us if we’d be able to create a special piece of art for his wife for Christmas. He showed us some samples of what kind of art he’d like and asked if we’d be able to create something like it. It was a wood stain art, and not having much experience (um, any) with stain + wood, we were a little nervous to agree. So we agreed to try out a smaller sample of wood to see how it’d turn out before committing to the whole thing! Brent wanted the wood to be a little more unique than the lumber on hand at Home Depot, so we began our search for something more rough cut.

Thankfully we found a local source that had piles of reclaimed wood. Literally there were piles outside and inside of the shop to choose from! They were really great at helping us find the perfect wood for our project, an antique heart pine from a mill that was in south GA (over 100 years old!). We used a small sample of this wood to test the whole process, and it turned out beautifully. It gave us the confidence to create the full piece, so we ordered the final, large scale piece for the project.

It was intimidating, but fun creating this piece! Initially Jonah and I didn’t know who would actually create the final art, but in the end it was me. Jonah had his hands full with a wood project for my mom and dad (a Christmas gift for them using old barn wood from their property,  I’ll share more about that soon!) I was the one to create the piece—my first wood stain art! Because of the history of the wood, I chose to put a magnolia on it and keep it all very southern. The staining process was probably the quickest part of the whole project, and the hardest part was choosing the flower and sketching it. In the end, I love that this piece has so much history wrapped up in it. We managed to keep the piece a big surprise for my sister-in-law, and she was so thrilled to receive it! Such a fun gift to create this year!