Sometimes a River.

Sitting on a big rock looking down at the Colorado River as it runs past Moab, Utah, I put in my earbuds and find one of my favorite songs on my iPhone:

I was cleaning the ash from the fire
and putting the party away
helping out all of my lost friends
to see the light of day
I was feeling the wind through the windows
Sometimes it crashed through the wall
seems like it comes out of nowhere
there's no warning at all
chorus
sometimes a river
sometimes a river runs dry
sometimes a river
sometimes a river runs high
I was making my way through a movie
finding it hard to decide
sometimes it hits without warning
and turns me over inside
making a stab in the darkness
wearing a hole in the floor
suddenly everything changes
your not the same as before
sometimes a river
sometimes a river runs dry
sometimes a river
sometimes a river runs high
you danced in my dream in a white dress
I watched from the top of the stairs
I woke up looking to find you
but you were not there
17 hours of driving
but that's not a surprise
the worlds all heavy with traffic
they never were good at goodbyes
no we never were good at goodbyes
sometimes a river
sometimes a river runs dry
sometimes a river
sometimes a river runs high

By, The StringCheese Incident

Siting there taking it all in I thought about how the river is a metaphor for life, and how much I liked listening to this song while sitting next to the river watching the water flow around and over rocks. The water seems to move around and over the rocks effortlessly while to get up on this rock I had to fight gravity and the heat, but then I realized that the water wasn't fighting gravity but was being pulled along by it. While it seems like the rocks are permanent, the water wears them down grain by grain.

I wanted to create a piece of furniture that brings these concepts and memories into my home. I've seen tables with river rocks inlaid into them so that's an easy addition to the design. I've often thought that Curly Maple with the grain and the curl looks like water flowing, and I have some very nice Quartersawn White oak that's a nice mellow brown just like the terrain along the Colorado River.

The QSWO is 5/4 and the Maple is 4/4, instead of using an inlay or veneer I'm planning on cutting a wide dado on each side of the "river" and overlaying it on top of the Maple. I'll cut curves in the QSWO that will be the banks of the river and route a round over along it. I plan on carving a recess to hold the rocks so that it looks like they are sticking out of the water. The grain on the maple will represent the currents of the river and the curl the rapids. This is the concept put together in a small scale. The River will run between two banks. I can only hope that the design I have in my head can be be translated into wood.

sometimes a river,
sometimes a river runs dry.
sometimes a river,
sometimes a river runs high.

The StringCheese Incident