This Way

[charlie knighton]

Cairn Box a series
9 x 6
boxelder burl, bradford pear, basswood, english boxwood root

[Thomas Canfield]

Looks interesting. The basswood seems like a pretty plain and soft wood for this mix based on the basswood I have seen used in carving, but the color blend should work.

[Marc Himes]

I have never heard of a Cairn Box. Could you tell me a little about it?

[charlie knighton]

thank you Thomas and Marc for looking and commenting.

the Cairn Box series is an offshoot of my trip to utah. i visited Canyonlands and Arches national parks, did a small amount of hiking on some of the trails. a cairn is marker (bunch of rocks one on top of another) on the trail to tell you you are going the right way, thus This Way. the form itself is fun, i have seen Jimmy C. do platters and i use some of his skills. i also use some of Mark Baker techniques from his contemporary balancing square edged platter rotation. his use of 2 lights to see the ghost was very helpful. i will probably do more in this series, add some color, carve the underside, burn some, just explore the form.

i do not know of anyone else doing a Cairn Box, corrrect me if i am wrong.

[Marc Himes]

Very interesting story and a great concept for a box. Thanks for the explanation.

[Michelle Rich]

never seen a cairn box..you might very well be the first..will be interesting to see where this takes you

[Ray Bell]

Interesting, but confusing. Is this finished, and is it a box?

[charlie knighton]

Thanks for looking and commenting Michelle and Ray.


Interesting, but confusing. Is this finished, and is it a box?

yes it is finished, i am not a gloss finisher, sort of follow John Jordan's lead in that deptartment. in future pieces of this series i will add embellishments to the underneath layers. there is a lot of white rock/sand whatever in the west.

actually it is a double box, there is a box between the boxelder burl and bradford pear and another box between the bradfrod pear and basswood. the bradford pear layer has the top of one box and the bottom of the other box.