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Welcome to Joe’s backyard!

I love taking old stuff and turning it into cool new stuff. This page will be a showcase for my creative outlets. I love turning wood so there will be a lot of that, along with whatever else might come up along the way. Here’s an example of turning old stuff into new stuff. This old, partially rotten log piqued my interest so I picked it up while clearing a yard on a house I was rehabbing. It “turned out” some pretty cool pieces.

  • Firewood? I think not!
  • First cut
  • First bowl, top
  • First bowl, bottom
  • Second cut
  • Second bowl, top
  • second bowl, bottom
  • Third bowl bottom
  • Third bowl side
  • Third bowl top
  • Fourth piece, Vase
  • Fourth piece, other side
Art from an old piece of firewood

A “Pinterest” Greenhouse

A few months ago a client came to me with a picture she had found on Pinterest, and a sketch, and asked if I could build one for her. “I’ve been watching the classifieds and buying old windows for a few years.” she said. I think I have enough. I went to her place and sure enough, she had a small concrete pad, a good collection of windows that seemed to be about 100 years old in a variety of sizes, and a door of a similar vintage.

So, with some figuring on how I would make all the windows work, trimming some, adjusting opening sizes for others, we came up with a plan and went to work. I did not do any progress pics because I didn’t think about it, but I think the new place turned out pretty nice.

And she was so excited to have it done that she immediately set it up with a tree and Christmas lights and sent me this picture from her back porch.

Bowl 100

When I got to where I needed to pick a block of wood for bowl #100, I had a lot of material to choose from. I have a friend who owns a tree cutting service and calls me when his guys cut down something interesting. Needless to say it was a hard choice but I settled on this big piece of Ash, not really knowing what I would find inside but knowing that at least it would be a good sized bowl if nothing else. I came across some rotten stuff which was not the easiest to work with. Had to do some filling with clear epoxy to keep everything together, and ended up with some “windows” in the knots. Not sure if I want to let this one go, I love how it turned out. What do you think? Finished size is 13″ across and almost 4″ deep.

  • Rough log top
  • Rough log bottom
  • Rough log on Lathe
  • Bowl 100 bottom
  • Bowl 100 top
  • Bowl 100 Side
  • Bowl 100 close-up
  • Bowl 100 Close-up 2