Inverness Cloak (Empire Canvas Works Pattern)

[Panache]

Very cool. Thanks!

Any pictures of the 'twisted ficus'?

Well here is an opportunity to see how well my scanner works.

Here is a picture from 2003 (sorry it is rather small but my efforts to make it bigger failed)




The "dragon" stick was one of those fancy twisted ficus tree houseplants one can buy in a fair number of places. It had died (read: my parents killed it) and had been tossed on the rubbish heap. I removed the branches and set the thing to finish drying out in my garage. The main root did have a nice bend to it but was sadly unsightly. Once completely dry I started rubbing it with various varnishes and tung oil, letting it dry again, and then lightly sanding it. Over the course a couple of months it became quite smooth and pretty hard. When I was satisfied with the wood I fashioned a leather "head" and called on the lovely F-H.C.A.G. 's skill at tying sutures to fix it into place.

It actually turned out to be a good walking stick. My wife's Step Mother was amazed at how light the thing was. When she asked what wood it was made of I loved the chance to say "houseplant!"

The other staff with the jaspar top for my Father-in-law took a lot less time but wasn't nearly as fun to make.

Cheers

Jamie