i traded too much away
for comfort's sake—
i would give back
most of my gold
in exchange for
a simple block of wood
A poem prompted by a randomly selected Elder Futhark rune.
Today’s rune is fehu, which has a core meaning of “cattle” or a more generalized “livestock”, which was a representation of personal wealth or earned prosperity. Sometimes luck played a role. Wealth and prosperity was valued, but was looked down upon when material accumulation appeared to be excessive, greedy, miserly or turned to hoarding, especially when those around you were lacking.
Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.
8 responses to “casting runes — 04dec25”
Aiyee, the block of wood I’m working is being very obstinate. I keep finding cracks in it I have to fix.
Fill them with acrylic! I watch those turning videos LOL.
But seriously… I’ll try to be less obstinate and cracked for you.
It’s a tabletop. Padouk, which is a tropical hardwood, It’s always kind of crumbly but I think I got an especially ornery piece. When It splits I make a ‘butterfly’ or ‘bow-tie’ out of some darker wood and inset it over the crack like a band aid, very Japanese woodworker. This tabletop I stuck together out of four planks I hand planed to thickness and it is just beautiful but yesterday I noticed a hairline fracture that would have caused it to break when I put it in place. Since it’s not physically separating, just faulted, I think (I hope!) I was able to fix it by forcing in a little glue with compressed air.
I’ve never gotten into woodturning-I don’t have room for a lathe in the garage, although I’ve been offered one or two. I can see how watching the wood peel away would be mesmerizing; it’s the same reason I like working with planes and flats, very meditative.
I’m sure the butterfly approach is cheaper than using gold to join the crack 😉
I’ve been tempted to try wood turning. Like most things, however, I am afraid of spending that kind of money to discover that I have zero skills (which is more often than not the case).
Like anything else, you can learn the skills, but it’s an expensive hobby. Wood, especially blocks of spalted wood like those woodturners love, is a commodity like gold these days. And the tools are expensive too, with a high percentage of ‘they’ll just sit there if you find a new pastime’ danger.
On the flip side, there’s lots of fun stuff to try. You can put metal like gold into wood. I’ve used brass, because you can sand it down flat once you insert it. I don’t remember the name of the process but you can definitely drip sulfur into a channel, which has a low enough melting point to drip it in there without charring and turns a very pretty yellow or white-that’s an old timey decorative process I would think about trying.🙂
I think you overestimate my ability to learn such skills. I generally make a hash out of most things that I attempt by the way of hobbies. Or useful skills.
🤪Great enthusiasm will lead to . . . places.
The poorhouse?