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Serial #019

Blue Moon Reliquary

For twenty years or more, no matter what job I was on--house, barn, or remodel—the saw boards went with me. Every saw kerf on the boards was put there by me. But my present days as a furniture maker have put an end to my travels as a gypsy carpenter, so the saw boards have stood gathering dust at the back of the shop.

Fascinated by their surface texture and too attached to the saw boards to use them for firewood, I decided to pair them with lumber from the old barn of my wife’s granddad. With nail after nail holding the barn together against the wear of time and racking of Texas Panhandle winds, the barn lumber, like my saw boards, shows the effects of a lot of work and hard use.

Door and case panels are cut from a large blue and red plywood disc that has been kicked around the barn loft for years. The disc has been buried in hay, played with by various kids, and for some unknown reason, never thrown away. None of us that are still around can remember the original function of the disc. And I never realized how interesting the paint surface was until part of the barn roof was removed and more light penetrated the dark loft. Scrap cuttings from the outer edge of the disc frame out the interior story cabinet.