If you wonder what I’ve been working on lately, this is where you need to be – my Brand New Work. Some of these might have been finished a while ago, maybe have been at a distant show and now returned or never before seen.
~ Click or Tap on any image to enlarge ~
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Yellow Hat – $80
Lavender Hat – $100
Did you look at the mountains west of town today? Snow, snow, snow and lots of it. So, these here guys got to get finished today.
You can see them in person this Sunday, October 19, 2025, 11-4PM at the WOMAN’S CENTURY CLUB, 304 N 2nd St. (Art in the House show). I’ll be showing these 3.5″ X 9” white powdered gents and with me will be 19 other artists.
$75
Boxes are a place to put a little something. A precious ring, a love note keepsake, a little pic of someone passed, a lock of hair, a poem you did in hi-school…And the box has to be special, not just any box. It has to have a finial and the finial must be from far away. Hmmm. Make it ebony from Indonesia. And the body has to be a fantasia to see, what with color and crazy grain, a few tiny repaired knots. The lid could be resin, but the color must complement the body and it has to have anxembedded pinecone to commemorate the wild woods source.
And there you have it, Box#10122025, 2.5″ x 2.5″ x 7″
$175
$175
HARVEST 6X6 SHOW AT THE BOXX GALLERY starts October 4, 2025. We’ll have umpteen artists there showing their fall collections and it’s a great time of the year, so, please come and we’ll entertain you. I have 5 pieces to show and all will be within the 6X6” limit that was designed to display smaller pieces for smaller places.
These two pictures shows my new box-in-a-box idea which features 2 boxes in 1 piece. Com ça, the sphere is totally hollow and it has a pinecone lid and that makes it a ‘box’. But wait! There’s more. The sphere sits as a lid on the hollowed tower base, and that makes it a 2nd sphere. So, it’s a box-on-a-box- at -the Boxx gallery.
$650
They bring the water to a parched land. And the desert blooms . They fly in all weather, seeking the clouds with the raindrops in them. All summer long, they sore and dip and dive, tireless in the search. Without them, the river don’t flow, the forest ain’t green, the crops won’t grow. To speed their journey, we send them off with good luck talismans: extra feathers in case they lose some in the wind, a rose cone, a lodgepole cone, a sea urchin, a lock of human hair.
A lidded, hollowed vase form, 6X18”. Birch. The lid has a carved and burned design. The copper metal rings are patinated as is the coppered paint on the base. Clear lacquer satin finish.
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$150
“Sphere Stix are 10” tapered candle stix sprouting from a Chinese Elm sphere. I’m exploring a number of opportunities offered by this round shape. Candlestix is my latest effort at mining different shapes and functions of the sphere. I made no attempt to ‘hide’ any of the many defects in the blocks of wood which have been sitting deep in my woodpile for many dry years. I did accentuate the grain patterns with Sakura pen and fiber reactive dyes and finalized it with sanding sealer and gloss lacquer. The base is old growth doug fir which I textured with molding paste, colored with copper powdered paint and patinated with acid patina from sculpt nouveau (love that name). 0000Steel wool cooled the glossy lacquered surface and then I dry-brushed it to make brown hi-lites.
“KINDERKOPHs, KINDERPOPOs”
$24 – $84
The colored spheres are the latest iteration of my attempts to develop the ‘round and brown’ aspect of turning wood into something new, something not boring to me. The first of these orbs were spalted birch and were finished in mineral oil/beeswax. Now, I’ve added several fabric reactive dyes that covalently (remember hi-school chem class?) bond to wood cellulose and make a permanent coloring on the wood fibers. I stop the dyeing process when they look right to me, then seal, then spray Minwax gloss lacquer, then polish.
Et voila, pour vous
$25 – $150
I’ve just today finished a bevy of these new wall hanging hearts that will greet you every time you pass by. Prices range based on size.
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$450
A double lidded, double candy dish from the wilds of our northern Idaho. Every time I go to see the woods above Coeur d’Alene, it takes my breath away, brings tears. When I got this Lodgepole Pine burl from logger friend, Nelson, I knew I had to leave it as crazy wild as possible and carve a scene from our Bonner County forest. So, I pierce-carved elk, eagle, fish, logging truck, and trees all lit up by the moon, sun , and stars. And the knobs are made from lodgepole cones.
12X14X8”
$275
8 X 9 X 8” — Lodgepole Pine in a forest setting rarely forms burls. But, here is living proof. And A working forest has no use for them because they ruin the timber for lumber purposes.
A log with the burl is “culled”, ie, thrown out for firewood or chips. To a woodturner, burls are visual magic, a treat never passed up. They look like a big ‘wart’ on the tree trunk and the burl wood grain and bark are disrupted and go in all directions, have ‘inclusions’, empty spaces, pitch pockets. These irregularities make the turning almost impossible and add a scad of fix-it time. The surface color variations are caused by the chatoyance of the light as it penetrates and reflects from different depths of wood fiber. The bowl’s bottom was left covered with the original tree bark, the legs and finial are turned aluminum, the finish is a polycoat of satin lacquer.
$290
7 X 7 X 12” — The chunk of wrecked, cracked, spalted, worm-eaten maple that became this piece was—a week ago—in the to-be-burned pile next to my Cadillac WorkShop. I waylaid it, sank it into a bucket of my secret potion, pressured and vacuumed it, stuck it on the lathe for turning and hollowing, sanded/polished/lacquered/waxed it. Today, I want you to see it in all its masculine glory.
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$90
A wee one, this ring box—only 1 1/2”X4”. She wanted to keep just a little nostalgia note in it and a little diamond memory from days gone by. At least, that’s what I imagined when I decided to make it.
Fashioned from dunking a pine cone in the base and another cone in the lid. My 2-CarbonOxygen Rings potion is getting uses again and again these days. Turned, hollowed, sanded, polished, lacquered.
$110
She’s a split personality, she is. Sometimes a voracious, meat-eating predator and, sometimes, a sweet one with a heart of gold. A treat in any case because each new day brings a surprise. You just plain can’t predict what face she’ll wear tomorrow.
Dragonfly: 4” X 5”X 2”. The thorax is epoxy clay, the abdomen is turned aluminum 62, the legs are steel wire and the wings are lasered metal. Acrylic airbrushed and 3-d paint colors and the finish is clear lacquer.
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$400
Presenting her little hearts to a big heart, like a kid giving trinkets to mom on mom’s special day.
Dragonflies have a bad rap as predators, meat-eaters. But , see? They have a sweet side.
Presenting her little hearts to a big heart, like a kid giving trinkets to mom on mom’s special day. Dragonflies have a bad rap as predators, meat-eaters. But , see? They have a sweet side.
The wings, lasered steel, look delicado but they’re totally flexible, won’t break. The dragon body is carved epoxy and ‘turned aluminum. The eyes are glass and the hearts—big one, too—are all Big Leaf Maple burl. Several reactive fabric dyes were used for colors/patterns. They are absorbed by the burled wood fibers differentially and that causes the wildly dramatic color and design patterns in the big heart.
The convex edge was left ‘live’ for emphasis. Sanded, polished, lacquered to a soft sheen, re-polished with 4-0000 steel wool. Fitted with a keyhole slot in the back, this piece hangs on the wall perfectly. (~6” x 24”).
~ Sold~
~9”X6”, done in my 2CarbonOxygen Rings potion with a huge Coulter Pine Cone embedded. I put a chunk of maple burl in the base and lid, let it cure under vacuum for a week, chucked it onto the lathe for shaping and hollowing, hid it in the paint booth for spray lac, polished it on the woolly wheels for a satin glow, et voila.
Pour vous, mes m’sieurs et ma’amselles. Merci
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$425
Ruby Slippers over a field of spikes,
A blue sea of stingrays
A beach of sharp black coral
The Ruby Slippers, the ones you reach for
When you’re gonna take a big step
Into the unknown,
Out of your comfort zone.
The Ruby Slippers, the ones you reach for
When you’re coming of age,
Ready to turn the page at 16 or 60,
When you just got’ta walk down that
Yellow brick road
No matter the peril, the excitement,
The load.
Thank you, Dorothy.
$225
Friend Jackie gave me a spruce cone that mimicked a rose so perfectly. And I found a chunk of unknown wood species in my throw away pile that looked like it might be burled. Hmmm. How to put them together in one piece. UhOh, Light bulb flashing: add some 2CarbonOxygen Rings potion “et Voila”, a marriage made in heaven. Yes, I sank the cone and the burl in resin, vacuumed, then pressured, then ‘turned’ it, hollowed it, sanded it, lacquered and polished it, waxed it and there you have it @ 5 1/2X 9”, a knobbed and lidded translucent green bowl.
$195
The piece of burl had a side of bark on it that I didn’t want remove. I knew if I left bark on it, I would have trouble with adhesion since my 2-carbonOxygen green potion wouldn’t stick well to it. But, what the heck, I used it anyway and it all stayed together whilst whizzing by the cutters on the lathe. The lid’s ‘cones’ are actually flower seed pods from a long forgotten fleur last summer. The green transluces well with morning light from my window.
5X8 1/2”, it’s a lidded bowl burl from big leaf maple, turned and hollowed, lacquer finish, diMond polished.
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$55 Each
(Includes a Carol Barany string-pull bag of your choice.)
These dough boys are finally done. And each one comes with a string-tie bag of choice from Carol Barany. They’re each generously long—22”—and they have a smooth constant albeit shallow arc perfect for flattening small or large flour balls. Whether you want pizza or pie, ie, rounded crust or square/rectangle, ie, cake platter shaped pieces, these ‘Pins’ will suit just fine. And they have no finish on them, save a little bees wax, so, the dough doesn’t stick to ‘em. Just clean off with a wet soapy rag and sprinkle ‘n rub on a few drops of mineral oil to keep them moist. All done in gorgeous 2-tone English Walnut with creamy and brown wood shaped and smoothed to 400gr. The tip handles are reds, blues, greens, and some plain.
$175
Yup, it’s crunch time again and us UW fans are fingering the strings and rooting for the purple and gold. This german smoker (3”X12”) is wafting his incense skyward in hopes of the win. He’s lathe-turned in walnut, carved by NSK and finished in his favorite airbrush colors and lacquer.
Now, back to the game,
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$175
The seed cones are hard as a rock and lend themselves well to making a top knob for this 2-CarbonOxygen ring box. The lid is black walnut and I had to use a little ball of epoxy clay to seat the pods. The flowers stalks immersed in the resin are nameless garden weeds in the peony patch. I stirred in a touch of blue dye and gold mica flakes at 6 hours cure time. The entire corpus was lathe-turned inside and out, sanded to 600gr, 10-coated with lacquer, polished in diamond dust, and signed.
Et voila!
On NPR I heard that animals have many recognizable distinct facial expressions. Kitty cats have 243. hmmmm. So, I figured other animals must have many different ‘looks’ and picked on owls to be my posers. And one way to make the same sitter to manifest a whole array of faces is to avoid fixing the head to the bod. Letting it rotate in any and all directions allows my Barn Owl an infinity of facial expressions: straight up intense, curiosity, intellectual, dull, questioning, nutty, funny, sleepy, bored. …
Lidded boxes 8-12”X3-4”, birch, maple, deer horn, acrylic, satin lacquer.
Signed by jsbarany
(L – R) $65, $100, $80
$250
At 5 1/2 x 10”, this piece was a big challenge to hollow. Carving the inside of a vaseform gets more dangerous with each inch depth because the carving gouge has to extend farther and farther off the tool rest. The tool tip is less stable as it extends from the rest and the likelihood of the dreaded catch multiplies. But, luck prevailed and the cutter kept cutting, the bottom was reached without errors, I signed with relief, patted my gouge with a thank you and moved on.
This one has a huge Coulter Pinecone in the body and a little Lodgepole Pinecone in the top knob. Hence, the 2-Cone name. 2-CarbonOxygen ring aliphatic was the medium used. I had to put this one in the refer when it got up to 130° F because I feared it would flash cure and crack. Worked perfect, cooled quick, hardened to rock solid and carvable in 3 days.
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$100
At a dainty 4 x 4”, this one likes to sit on a shelf, on a desk, a settee wa, a counter.
I put just enough blue pigment in the dye to make it translucent and just enough gold mica to add a swirl. Then, the pine cone goes in and gets taped to the rim so it won’t ‘float’ too high. The 2-carbonOxygen Aliphatic then sits until its temp rises to ~110*F before I start the fan to keep it cool. If the temp rises to 125*, it takes a quick trip to the freezer to prevent the dreaded ’flash cure’ which destroys the magic of cross-linking and polymerization that makes liquid resin into a rock solid blob. 24 hrs later, if it’s hard and has no cracks, it is threaded onto the lathe for carving. A bit of sanding, polishing, and lacquer later and, voila, here it is.
$175
I’m encouraged to continue working in the 2-CarbonOxygenDoubleAliphaticRing series that I’ll show you in the next 2 weeks. My inspiration is provided by the mouse that is rattling and rummaging in my studio’s cubbyholes. I’m imagining his scratchings and scurryings as if it were a furious hand-clapping standing ovation from my audience of one up here on the second deck of my studio. It keeps me going. I’m one who needs lotsa shoulder pats.
That said, this 4 1/2 x 5 1/2” lidded bowl has a Scotch PineCone submerged in the knobtop (sorry Scotty) and an allium seed pod submerged in the body.
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Four dishes in one piece, 25 x 16 x 4” Carpathian Walnut, urethane (totally food-safe) finish.
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This one tested jbar’s new, still rudimentary, carving skills since it never made it to the comfort zone, my trusty Powermatic 4224 lathe. Instead, I pulled out my newish Manpa-21, the King Arthur belt-driven 90* grinder, and the Merlin mini-mauler and went to town. It sits perfectly flat on its 3 aluminum 6062 legs (ok, no surprise) and the chainsaw figured out how to keep the bark on the entire perimeter, no lapses. I decided to make it into a 4-dishes-in-one platter because it was big enough that as a one-disher it would’ve held a half bushel of apples. Hmmm, too many. So, now it can hold 4 different condiments, each in their private kingdom: chips, olives, shrimp, dip, cherry toms, lettuce…..
$575
Hearts are OK any time of year, so, I made three of them because I had a piece of Big Leaf Maple burl to cut up. I’ll show ‘em tomorrow and Sunday, too. No, this one never made it to the lathe, was totally carved with my tribe of hand tools and rotary spinners and a 3/8” drill from Harbor Freight. I left some of the defects present, hoping to catch an eye or two for the grandeur that this species of tree presents in its burls. ~9″ x 11″ x 1 1/2”.
$99
This 19″ x 19″ x 4 1/2” shallow bowl is meant for show or fruit or chips w dips or that catch-all on the counter for the to-be-answered-soon mail. Birch is a fantastic tree in Yakima and if you grow one in your front yard and water it well — this species sucks up a ton of H2O — it’ll put on an inch every year. Placed out in the open with no competition, it is subject to wind and wind stress. When it gets old and heavy (at least 20”d), that combo of wind and weight causes these dramatic patterned ‘blotches’ in the wood which show really really dramatically when you make so-called end-grain bowls like this one. I often keep the bark on as that leaves an unmistakable identifying finger print.
$390
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“Spikey Duo”
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$375
“Spikey Duo”
A pair of unmatched lidded boxes meant for candy or something smallish — it’s 12x11x6”—that you can see from the outside. The bigger dish is covered with a carved and pierced lid that lets in a dappled light that gives just a hint of what’s inside: a note, a deed, chocolates, jewelry, badges. The smaller dish is oblong and topped with a crystal clear acrylic lid with a polished aluminum knob. It’s for M&M’s, Redhots, Neccho disks…
Big Leaf Maple grows on the West side of Washington/Oregon and its burls are well known to ‘turners’. The dramatic outside spikes are what’s left of yearling branches that don’t live more than a few months. The tree smothers these newbie twigs and, over time, grows over and incorporates them as the tiny blackish brown dots that you see inside in the overhead pic.
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$125
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$100 each