I am biased towards natural wood … I like the stuff. I actually think that everyone deep down appreciates the look of a good walking stick or piece of furniture that still has all the appearance of natural wood. If it’s handmade … better. If it’s artsy and totally cool – and simply built – you win!

Here’s how to do that. Look for cool sticks. They are usually free … on the ground and near trees. In my case, I have some big overgrown red dogwood shrubs. I let them overgrow actually because the branches become more interesting the more overgrown they become. If you keep them trimmed yearly (like you are supposed to do), the branches are red and clean looking as well as very straight and thin.

Anyhow … mine are imperfect and the imperfect is what I like. Here’s what I made with them after I trimmed some off:

The process to make your own is easy enough … and chances are that if you can find a cool stick, branch, twig or piece of bark, you can find another piece of cool wood to go with it as a base for your very own free decoration building project adventure. Here’s the basic process:

First, find your cool stick and find another piece of wood to go with it as the base or holder – like a chunk of 2×4, or cut another larger piece off some other log you might have access to. In my case for the projects above, I used a chunk of birch I had laying around, a 1×3 of some kind of wood I found in my burn pile of wood in the shop, I cut a small piece off an old post I had in the shop and I found a piece of 2×4 to cut down to the length I wanted – and I didn’t measure that. in fact, I didn’t measure anything in this whole project – You shouldn’t either. It’s art. feel it. 🙂

Second, drill a hole. Eye ball the size of the stick and drill that size hole in the base piece of wood. If you drill it a little too small, you can wiggle back and forth with the drill bit to make the hole a little bigger (and it tapers a bit too which can allow for a snug fit later). If it’s really too small, use a bigger drill bit till you get it right. If the hole you drill is just a little too big, you can use tape or paper or something to wrap around your stick to make it fit snug. If it’s really too big … find another stick to go along with your first stick (I did that in one of them above – Tiny) … or drill another hole a little smaller till you get it right. Have fun here too, and of course be safe using power tools.

Third, sand that base piece of wood. Heck, paint it if you like, stain it, rub it with oil … whatever makes it look cool and finished in some way. I find that sanding usually does trick. If it’s already really cool as is … leave it as is. I kind of did that with the chunk of Birch I cut off in my example above (Flame).

Last, put your cool stick in the hole you drilled for it on the base piece of wood. You are probably done. If you want to keep going, finish the bottom of the base piece of wood with felt, or little rubber feet.

So why go to all the trouble for an old free stick? … Well two reasons.

One: it will probably look cool on display in your own home – and you can say you made it. Plus it was free, it’s dramatic, and really … it’s art.

Two: You can name them like pieces of art and give them away … “Windy” went to my sister in law for her tastefully decorated condo, “Tiny” went to my daughter away at college in a little apartment. “Charlie Brown” went to my other daughter so her college roommates and she would have a Christmas tree – and my wife and I kept “Flame” above.

I wish you luck in making your free decorations! – Dom

… as a side note, I originally had ‘Flame‘ displayed in one direction, but as the twig dried out, it changed shape pretty dramatically so half way through the month I switched up how I displayed it … so I guess it’s Living Art. Who knew? It’s currently at auction at Sotheby’s for just over a million by some of Banksy’s stuff. << me being whimsical and wishful)