stained imperfection

and whittling emergencies

Whittling is an emergency.

Well, more of an emergence really.

When something emerges, it’s something that was already there, waiting to be discovered. Take the origin of the word ‘emerge’

to rise from or out of anything that surrounds, covers, or conceals; come forth; appear, as from concealment," 1560s, from French émerger and directly from Latin emergere "bring forth, bring to light," intransitively "arise out or up, come forth, come up, come out, rise," from assimilated form of ex "out" (see ex-) + mergere "to dip, sink" (see merge). The notion is of rising from a liquid by virtue of buoyancy. Related: Emerged; emerging.

Emerging is the opposite of merging, of confluence.

Emerging is about making room for what was already there.

My whittling has been an emergency lately as I’ve been working with loose grained wood that was very straight, without knots or scars or defects.

The wood I’ve been working with as been in a lot of ways ‘perfect’ for whittling.

This perfect wood is also about as b…