For the Love of Wood...

So 2009 was an interesting year, but I wanted to make it even more interesting by attempting to embroider on wood. It was definitely a challenge, but one I truly enjoyed.

The first major challenge was finding Balsa wood. Who would have thought finding 4" wide balsa wood could be a challenge?! I spent days on the phone calling cabinet shops, the few craft shops we have here in Arizona, hobby stores and everything in between. I finally reverted back to my computer and the internet. Alas, I found an awesome shop in Colorado. They were great to work with, they are now my wonderful source for balsa.

Then the next challenge came to figure out what type of designs worked best. Too many stitches and it breaks the balsa, so it was definitely trial and error. But thank goodness after a few of those, it became easy to recognize which ones would stitch nicely.

After receiving my balsa wood and figuring out the designs, it was time to have some fun!

This was my first set of embroidered coasters on Balsa wood. Before stitching them out, I stained the wood, after stitching I coated the coasters with four coats of a high gloss polyurethane. They were finished off with a cork backing. I was quite happy with the finished product.

Now it was time to do it again. I know, I am a glutton for fun. :)

I live in the Southwest, so my only choice for this set of coasters was a Southwest design. I added a hemp rope for the edging to tie in with the design. I am not sure I will do that again, it was a long, and hard tedious task.

Oh my aching hands when I was finished. But again, I loved the finished product.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about my adventures with embroidery on wood.

Hmmmm.... any ideas what you would like to see stitched out on wood? Drop me a comment, would love to hear them.

Have a wonderful day!
Carly