Creating the Magic
Aiming For the Best...
Its fair to say that our real magical power at Fairytale Wood is giving trees a second life as beautiful objects that will last a lifetime. This involves drying, cutting, glueing and shaping to make ‘blanks’ for bowls or plates or whatever else. We use local Polish woods and reclaimed exotic woods. Drying alone can take many years!
To the lathe! We form the basic shape of the object on the lathe using traditional wood turning tools and techniques (plus a few tricks of our own). Here we add channels or holes for decoration too and apply a sealing process to them so that no epoxy can leak colour later into the wood.
Next we may use digital design to create unique patterns representing myths, fairytales or cultural patterns such as celtic knotwork. These are then 3d printed to carefully fit the piece. We often use wood based filament in our 3d printing. Here we were making a labyrinth for the bottom of a bowl.
We may decorate the piece using natural items such as gemstones, pine cones, pods, nuts, shells, quartz and a range of other items. Each pattern and colour combination is unique.
Now we bind the wood, digital design and natural decorations into one whole with epoxy resin. We use top quality imported mica powder (a natural mineral colouring) for our resins and our colours are chosen to match the concept of the piece. The epoxy is degassed in a vacuum chamber to avoid bubbles for outstanding quality.
Then we wait. Tick tock. You can’t rush a good thing. The wood must settle and the epoxy can take up to a week or two to fully cure on a deep pour.
Finally! The piece is ready to take to the lathe and turn again. This time we seal cracks or holes with a technique based on Japanese Kintsugi. Carefully finish the wood shape and trim the resin to to perfectly smooth. Then we sand and polish which is complicated on mixed media and requires finesse. This can take many hours and many passes.
Finishing the piece is a long process. We oil the piece to being out the colour of the wood and then apply six or more coats of finish. It requires us to sand back a couple more times and it can take a week to properly finish a piece. Once done, it is protected for years to come from water, stains, scratches, dents and so on with no maintenance. We use traditional wood finishing techniques that, once cured, are waterproof and food safe.
Now the best part – ENJOY! You can hang pieces, decorate a shelf, give them as gifts or simply use them every day. There is almost no maintenance – simply wipe with a wet cloth and dry.
Thanks for reading our process. Now you know why we say “a little bit of magic in every piece!”