Newest News: Mountain Sage

 Mountain Sage

So I have been making a number of items over the last few months and started realizing I will not be readily available during the summer months. So I decided to change my tactics a little. I am going to place a number of items in a small nursery located in Groveland, CA, my hometown. Groveland is located on Highway 120 on the way to Yosemite National Park. It is small, very small, with a few of restaurants, two banks, one bar, some small boutiques a school. Nothing much happens here in the off season except when the tourists start coming to town. All in all Groveland is a great little town that deserves a days visit.

The Nursery/Coffee shop Mountain Sage has been there for years, although a different name when I worked there almost 15years ago. Today it is an excellent little coffee shop and nursery with wonderful landscaping and places to relax in the gardens while sipping tea and coffee (they make the best latte's around!!). The nursery also host a number of artist in the form of music, artwork and naturalists. It is a great venue and a must on the way to or from Yosemite!

The owners of the Coffee shop, Colton and Hillary, are great people that welcome local and handmade items. Colton was very interested in my items from the get go. As a result I have decided to place my items with them over the summer months and see how they sell. I believe this will be a good business deal for us both.

At this time my plan is to place all my small items and a couple of larger items, a number of business cards and small description of who I am and what I do. Similar to my general profile here.  From there I will add new items when I get a chance to make more over the summer months. Since I am working away from home, and without a shop, it'll be interesting none the least. For those of you who know me,I can't sit still for very long and will welcome a task here and there. Although fishing the Merced River might take a bit of my time :)


I am looking forward to doing business with Mountain Sage and see how popular my items are with the volume of customers that come through the Highway 120 corridor. Colton has asked that I have a demo day or two that show's my process for making my various item. I am not sure of the dates yet but I will let you know when I do. My plan is to make simple items for folks to finish themselves and take home. If you happen to visit my site via Mountain Sage or stop by due to my blog, I'd love to hear from you and your experiences!

Cheers, Scotty

creating my latest design

The Wood Mosaic

Over the Easter weekend I made, or at least finished a few really cool things! First off I will mention the collage.I started a monthly challenge on Esty's Woodworkers as a fun way to force new ideas, designs and show off the talents of the many wonderful artist.



April's Challenge brought forth by TheHickoryTree was to build a collage. Extra scraps, a little sanding, some glue. Yeah I thought I could do this.

I started out with the idea of flowers and perhaps asters (daisy's) in mind. I started out with some extra scraps that I cut into somewhere equal in thickness. Next I had to reevaluate how the wood was shaping up. I had some great manzanita, birds-eye-maple, and cherry stock. Well each time I tried to make my original plan, but it wasn't quite working. I decided to have a bite to eat and reference John Muir Laws The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada . I love Orchids but the intricacy of designing my favorite (Mountain Lady Slipper) just wasn't going to happen. Pansies and monkey flowers on the other hand are much easier. Plus who can go wrong with tulips or even better yet, California Poppies!

So in the end that is what I went with. A beautiful mixed collage of flowers.

The boarder is made from an exotic (can't remember which).

Flower stalks are made of cherry and manzanita.     

Leaves are made from Manzanita.

Flowers are made from splated big leaf maple.

The round piece is manzanita.
The base is spalted big lag maple.
Finished with Tung Oil