My first education was the wood itself. It was surprising that there was beauty in all wood, even ordinary birch plywood.
Most of Barb's work begins with a slab of wood, known as a burl, which is first run through a planer to determine its thickness. The planer can take off as little as 1/8th of an inch at a time, until the wood is exactly as she'd like it to be. The thinner the wood, the easier it will be to control in the saw. All kinds of wood are used: walnut, teak, poplar, birch, oak, and cedar, although cedar dulls blades, so isn't especially popular for fine work.
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