Terry Evans -Wood Boxes, Jewelry
Terry Evans is a consignee artist and does not have store hours.
spiritwood@everestks.net
The artist’s world is often driven by obsessions. Two such obsessions motivate me – the desire to create objects of distinction, and the ongoing search for wood species that are visually engaging, whether they are incredibly rare varieties, or common local hardwoods that have somehow been overlooked.
Inventing processes and creating new forms have been the focus of my creative life for over 35 years. I began my earliest artistic pursuits as a leather smith, which in turn led to the development of a line of inlaid wood belt buckles and other jewelry. My introduction to unusual hardwoods, aided by a membership in the international Wood Collectors Society, resulted in a desire to design and produce boxes and other vessel forms.
My process involves laminating various hardwood lumber, natural veneers, and dyed veneers into a solid block, or billet. The box-making techniques I use are adaptations of basic band saw box production that have been popularized in the last 50 years. I like to think that I have added a few twists of my own.
I strive to accentuate the visual elements of color and contrast in my work, while maintaining the integrity of wood as a material. The colors you view here, and in all my work, are 95% natural hardwood colors. You will see only a few dyed veneers, allowing me to broaden the color pallet. The dyed veneers are produced in Europe from thin slices of naturally light species of wood, which are vat-dyed to colors not occurring in natural wood.
It’s a great joy for me to see folks smile when they discover my work at an art fair or in a gallery. I hope that those who own my work smile often as they use, handle, or simply glimpse the piece in passing, knowing that in that piece reside not only my hours of labor, but the sweat and effort of all the unseen people whose labors have brought those diverse pieces of cellulose into my possession. I love conversations about wood, art, and the role of craftsmanship in enriching the human spirit. Please feel free to communicate through email.
As the artisans behind Spiritwood jewelry, our aim is to present the beauty of the world’s hardwoods in a wearable form. From the commonplace indigenous woods to the most obscure and overlooked exotics, we make every effort to ensure that the woods we use are harvested in a sustainable and responsible manner. The designs you see are the result of painstaking inlay and precision joinery. No paints or stains are used. A few of the fine lines are dyed veneers which are dyed all the way through and are colorfast. All pieces are finished with water-resistant polyurethane finish.
Prairie PastTimes LLC 