In August I cut down a willow shoot that had sprung from the stump of a very large willow tree. The unusual appearance made me keep it. I made a display for it that is best described as rustic, with screw and staple gun joinery. I got only one comment on another forum where I posted. The otherwise deafening silence indicated disapproval. I have done a lot of woodworking over 30 years starting with furniture and recently a serving tray, coffee table, and small box as gifts. This I made for myself. It's my first quirky build. As I am 80 y.o., it will be my last. I had fun doing it. Please tell me what you think, even if you despise it.
Rustic display case
Posts
Re: Rustic display case
#2
@Bruce Mack,
It does have an ironic quality, doesn’t it? A wood enclosure to showcase wood certainly plays with the idea of what’s expected in woodworking.
When making things for yourself, I don’t think it’s about others’ approval, but about the satisfaction and meaning you derive from what you build. This piece reflects your creativity and individuality, and that’s what makes it stand out. And for that, I give it five stars.
Personally, I would put a ferret inside it. If I had one. 
Re: Rustic display case
#3Now you need a small stuffed squirrel on a branch. Looks good
Re: Rustic display case
#4If you title it, you could enter it in a gallery. Since you called it quirky, you obviously did it for your own satisfaction, and that's all that counts. I'm personally not a great judge of art, but I still like it for the reason that you made it.
Re: Rustic display case
#5
Looks good to me, for the simple reason that you like it, and you had fun doing it. Every craft needs people who do things differently from the expected norms from time to time.
Jason
Re: Rustic display case
#6I'm not sure I like your rustic case, but it is interesting, vastly more interesting than 99% of the river tables out there. A lot of people also seem to be turned off by things that make them wonder why it was done as it was done - the branches coming out the sides for example, those make me wonder why you chose to do it the way you did. I suppose that this is the other explanation for the deafening silence on the other forum - a lot of people tend to like seeing what they've already seen elsewhere. Something different can be unnerving and they tend to ignore it.
I think I would like it more with some color on the outside (or inside) of the box. I bet I would like color on just the outside or inside, contrast with the unfinished side. Don't know for sure though.
Anyway, I say keep doing interesting stuff!
Re: Rustic display case
#7I'm curious as to how you "magically" got those forked branches through the holes. I'm going to assume the board was split/cut and glued back together around the branches. Your photography cleverly doesn't show that! I like it!
Re: Rustic display case
#8Wabi Sabi say,
"Seek balance not symmetry"
[Replace the metal grill with glass or plexi ]
Re: Rustic display case
Edited #9Thanks, everyone. I had also posted to a British site where I was asked: "why?". I'll copy my answer and add that I found Willow scary, even repulsive, when I first saw her growing from the stump of the old tree. When she dried, she looked too tame and I tried to restore her to life by having her grow out of her confinement.
Thank you for suggesting color, John. The piece needs something. A not-intrusive green might suggest regrowth if it doesn't look contrived. I'd like the color inside but I can't get inside anymore.
Willow was an annoying offshoot of her old man, a twenty-five-year-old willow tree that towered over our barn and had dropped 2 heavy boughs in different years. It was near the end of its life span and had to be felled and removed in many large pieces. When the arborist left, he said other willow trees could grow from the stump. Willow did grow exuberantly amid trash growth of all kinds. My wife wanted it all gone. I complied but felt guilty when I saw her beauty too late, but she was also sinister. She slept in the barn for months losing color and life before I took her into my shop to examine her for display. I had no purpose in mind when I placed her on a base. The holes for 2 limbs were a conceit at first but later portals for her escape, to what purpose I don't know.
Added later 59 min 12 s:
Tom Gall wrote:I'm curious as to how you "magically" got those forked branches through the holes. I'm going to assume the board was split/cut and glued back together around the branches. Your photography cleverly doesn't show that!
Tom - I went crazy thinking about "how" and eventually used cardboard as well as a large framing square to establish a line along which I could cut the 2 limbs to coincide with the right sidewall. I got it right with the lower limb but just missed it with the upper (you can see this when you enlarge the posted image), but it's not intrusive even to me. Using J-B Weld because of its dark gray color, I re-attached the limbs using thin brads to locate the 2 parts. I had to drill a hole in the proximal (tree) segment and clip the head off near to where it emerged. Then I did a trial fit, pressing the segments together to make a dimple in the distal segment. I drilled a hole in the distal segment and tried to match the pieces, backing off and squinting, hoping not to fall over. When at last I applied the epoxy, the press fit was not tight enough to hold, so I tacked the pieces with a 23 ga. pin nailer. The epoxy set and the pins are unseen. It all looks better than it ought to, and I'm pleased with the illusion.
Re: Rustic display case
#10It doesn't ring a bell with me, but its yours to do with as you will. If you need adulation at 80 I think your fishing in a dry hole...change the bait. I mean are you blind/handicapped in some way...if so, great work. If not, the wood surface looks well done, the branch's thru the wood is neat in a way, but I'm sure doable with conventional wood working. I apologize if this treatment offends you or readers. If you want praise above all...go to LumberJocks.
Re: Rustic display case
#11I don't need praise, Frank. I appreciate your opinion and I hope you feel better.
I'll paint the outside as John in NM suggested and post a photo afterward.
Re: Rustic display case
Edited #12
Do I detect a romance of unrequited love? The sense of loss, beauty, and mystery in your post echoes the themes in Edgar Allan Poe's Annabel Lee. The way you describe the willow as both beautiful and sinister, and the idea of it "sleeping" and losing color, mirrors Poe's portrayal of a love that lingers even after death—unsettling yet deeply emotional. Both the willow and Annabel Lee have an enduring presence, a haunting quality, and a sense of longing that transcends time.
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a shoot there lived whom you may know
By the name of Willow Tree;
And this shoot she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
I was an old man and she was a shoot,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love—
I and my Willow Tree—
With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of my wife, chilling
My beautiful Willow Tree;
So that her highborn kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a barn
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
Went envying her and me—
Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Willow Tree.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we—
Of many far wiser than we—
And neither the angels in Heaven above
Nor the demons down under the sea
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Willow Tree;
For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Willow Tree;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Willow Tree;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,
In her sepulchre there by the sea—
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
Re: Rustic display case
#13I did get carried away. This tableau isn't meant to offend woodworkers or anyone else. Willow is just one of the living creatures who died, either at my hand (very few) or for the unknowing me (animals, fish, birds). I have been a vegetarian for the last 35 years. I won't eat what I wouldn't kill. Quoth the Raven "Nevermore"
Re: Rustic display case
#14
The Root of the Problem
It started with a whisper in the wind. No one noticed at first. Scientists argued it was just a fluke, a trick of the rustling leaves. But soon, the whispers became words, and the words became screams.
The trees were awake.
Not just alive in the way humans always knew—swaying gently, filtering air, growing patiently—but aware. And, more importantly, furious.
For centuries, they had endured the indignity of axes and chainsaws, their bodies turned into houses, furniture, and disposable coffee cups. They had been whittled into toothpicks, shredded into napkins, and pulped into books filled with human nonsense about self-improvement and finance. It was the last indignity that broke them.
The Great Oak of Yellowstone, an ancient giant that had witnessed the rise and fall of empires, was the first to strike. One morning, a ranger found a logger hanging from its lowest branch, his own chainsaw wrapped tightly around his neck like a cruel scarf. The authorities called it an accident. The trees called it justice.
Then the redwoods made their move. A group of tourists went missing in California’s Muir Woods. When search teams finally found them, they were deeply embedded in the bark of several massive trunks, their horrified faces peeking out as if they had been swallowed whole. The press blamed sinkholes, but the trees knew better.
Urban forests joined in next. Maple trees in suburban neighborhoods began releasing pollen so potent that entire towns collapsed into sneezing, wheezing, allergic comas. Roots burst through asphalt, wrapping around cars like constrictors, their drivers vanishing without a trace. City parks became death traps, their once-inviting benches twisting into jagged, splintered torture devices at the mere touch of human flesh.
But it wasn’t enough. The trees wanted humanity to feel their pain on a deeper level.
They invaded the internet.
It started subtly—wooden keyboards refusing to type, paper printers vomiting blank sheets, e-books becoming inexplicably corrupted with nothing but the phrase “WE REMEMBER” scrawled across every page. Then, the paper money crumbled in people's hands, as if the very fibers refused to participate in human economy any longer. Stock markets crashed. Governments panicked. Scientists, for the first time in history, admitted they had no idea what to do.
And just when humans thought it couldn’t get any worse, the fruit trees made their move.
Apples turned to vinegar overnight. Oranges oozed with a thick, black sap that reeked of decay. Coffee beans? Vanished. Tea leaves? Wilted into dust. Humanity, deprived of its caffeine, collapsed into madness.
By the time people finally realized the truth—that the trees were not just alive, but in charge—it was too late. The forests grew unchecked, swallowing cities whole. Civilization crumbled under an avalanche of roots and leaves.
And at the center of it all, the Great Oak of Yellowstone whispered to the wind once more.
“Now we grow.”
Re: Rustic display case
#15Wow. That's a great story.
Here's the Birnam Oak. He's 600 years old and still living in Scotland. A friend of Shakespeare, he had a supporting role in Macbeth. He gets around on crutches, chasing the wee ones but getting only old pensioners and occasional tourists.
.
Re: Rustic display case
#16Interesting, but to me the wire mesh doesn't work. I like the display, including the branching out, but agree with John on adding color (to the case) and Mark (even before I read his comment) that I would prefer to see a clear panel instead of mesh.
Either way I am not certain my spouse would want to display this in our living room, but haven't asked.
Henry
Re: Rustic display case
#17I agree with you, Henry. It's rough. It's ugly. The stapling of the mesh is distracting. After trimming and filing, the stainless wire ends remain a hazard. If I can cover the edges and bottom unobtrusively and paint them and the sides, the eye would be drawn to the willow, less to the box. I want to keep the steel mesh as a symbol of captivity. Filling the wire mesh requires an epoxy or Bondo (yes Bondo). Nothing ventured....
Re: Rustic display case
Edited #18All said and done, I've seen a lot of stuff that was supposedly modern art that this piece puts to shame.
Added later 02 min 07 s:
All said and done, I've seen a lot of stuff that was supposedly modern art in shows that this piece puts to shame. I didn't relate it to a poem though, only Peter could 
Re: Rustic display case
#19
@John and @Dale Thanks for your prompts. I added color and made it less lumpy.
John in NM wrote:I'm not sure I like your rustic case, but it is interesting, vastly more interesting than 99% of the river tables out there. A lot of people also seem to be turned off by things that make them wonder why it was done as it was done - the branches coming out the sides for example, those make me wonder why you chose to do it the way you did. I suppose that this is the other explanation for the deafening silence on the other forum - a lot of people tend to like seeing what they've already seen elsewhere. Something different can be unnerving and they tend to ignore it.
I think I would like it more with some color on the outside (or inside) of the box. I bet I would like color on just the outside or inside, contrast with the unfinished side. Don't know for sure though.
Anyway, I say keep doing interesting stuff!