I finished this northwoods headboard commission just in time for the recipients to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. What a fantastic gift to receive in their new (but not totally done) bedroom remodel in a northern Wisconsin lake cabin. We hung the headboard and took pictures and some video to help surprise them. The electricity in the room wasn’t on yet so please excuse the lighting in some photos.
You may recall in my previous post that this started with a large slab of spalted Elm. When I looked at this piece in the mill, I could see images of animals in it from the start. I pointed out some of the lines of the moose so you can see how my mind works.
From there, I started felting up some dimension. I wanted the felt to extend the animals from the wood so I stayed close to the wood coloring in spots and then took license with key distinctive features.
All of the animals included on the headboard are found in the northwoods of Wisconsin. I also added wire in some spots to allow for extension beyond the slab just a little. Keeping in mind that this is a headboard so I didn’t want to get too crazy.
This project was a labor of love that took a couple of months to complete. I froze in an upstairs garage loft to complete much of the work since it was such a large piece but the end result was worth it. We revealed the headboard to the couple last week and they absolutely loved it!
