I recently attended the 40th birthday of one of my friends that I’ve known for more than 20 years. He’s an illustrator and giving him a purchased gift simply seemed wrong.
Instead I decided to do a glued-up board using pieces of “scrap wood” that I had laying around in the shop. Its a combination of 4 sorts of wood: oak, beechwood, mahogony and an unknown one. During the process I became unsure of the result so I decided to also include a board of pure oak.
But after shaping and applying oil to the piece it stood out as both unique and beautiful. I’m very happy with it and has cut up wood to do a box inspired by the same idea.