Painting logs

An attempt at value addition

About six weeks ago, I was clearing the compound of garden debris. Buried under a mound of dried leaves were some mangled branches and the trunk of a young tree , about 8 years old as inferred from its annular rings. The leaves were quickly carted away to generate some free garden space

As regards the trunk and branches, the idea originally was to cut these to pieces with a hacksaw and dump the bits into the Council's tub meant for disposing garden waste. That would have been mulched into bits and finally strewn somewhere.

But while sawing, I found the wood good and hard and changed lanes in my thinking. I decided to add some value to the log by painting it and the choice was to do so as in a Didgeridoo, considering the shape. The Didge, as it is called, is an aboriginal wind-musical instrument, honed out of termite eaten hollow tree trunks.  I cut this trunk and the branches into suitably sized pieces, removed the bark, chipped off the nodes and gritty  bumps,  and smoothened the surface with sand paper. Everything was manually done

I tried out some sketches, but was inspired when I saw a set of the colored masks of native tribals. I gave the logs a base coat, dried it, then sketched the masks and painted them using water-based and oil-based colors. Although this one is solid and does not produce any music, the shape is that of a Didgeridoo. The words DJIRRI NYURRA mean GOOD DAY in Tjapukai, which is one of the 250 odd aboriginal languages from as many tribes in Australia

And that's what you have here. It was ready on the day after Pongal and handed over.

The full log , shaped as a Didgeridoo

The humble log of wood got the pride of place in someone's home as a curio

Any value? Addition??

GOOD DAY