Coming Soon!

Coog Instruments and Folk Art will be going the way of the dodo soon. Early in 2009, it will become extinct. However, around the same time, a new entity will emerge, and it will be called "Ron Cook Studios".

This new company will pave the way for me to expand my wood carving and sculptural creativity into places where no one has gone before. I will be able to direct my interests into not only musical sound sculptures, but also into other artistic and sculptural pursuits, both functional and decorative.

Stay tuned as the evolutionary drama unfolds!

Anyone for Chess?

It's been a while since my last post, mainly because I've been working very hard on instruments more than folk art, and also due to the hard disk crash that took me away from my work for several days. However, today that changed a little, since I started doing more work on the chessboard I've tinkered with for several months. It was time to sand the uneven surface to make it an even surface. That took several passes through my drum sander.

Since my drum sander is only 10 inches wide, I had to pass the chessboard through twice, turning it around to get both sides. Fortunately, my sander has an open end and can sand pieces up to 20 inches wide in two passes.

Today I also ripped some maple strips to carve and mount on the board as a decorative frame. As soon as that's done, I'll start thinking more about what type of figures I want to carve as chessmen. More to come!