The tale of two dogs started off as a simple request from a mate. This particular mate had moved to Yorkshire, bought a beautiful house in the Dales in an isolated hamlet and had just renovated the kitchen and utility room. She also has two Labradors who are lovely; Caspar and Milton (don’t ask!).
“I need a set of hooks for the dog leads, four hooks. Nothing poncy, to go in the utility room. I’m not made of money. What can you do?”
Following a couple of FaceTime calls it became clear that her original idea was something in painted wood with chrome hooks. However, the beginnings of a cunning idea started to form in the depths of the workshop. “Send me a couple of photos of the dogs, head shots.” I ask.
What if we could take the photos and create silhouettes of each dog so she would be able to recognise them. If we could use the silhouettes to cut the heads into a nice piece of oak, then we have the basis of something functional but lovely.
There are times when having a great idea and executing that great idea, are miles apart. This was one of those times. Creating the silhouettes from the photos to actually look like the dogs took an age. When artistic talent was being handed out, I must have been out of the room. Anyway, we got to something that worked well enough. Now we just needed to make it out of wood.
The piece of oak was an offcut from a window cill. Once the basic pieces had been cut from the window cill leftovers, we cut the outline of each dog’s head with a fret saw by hand. The ears were particularly pleasing! The final piece was sanded to an ultra-smooth surface (with a 400 grit, if you are into the detail) and finished with a few coats of Danish Oil.
Now, the observant reader will notice to date there has been no mention of hooks. 10 marks for artistic content but 0 for functionality. We quickly decided chrome hooks didn’t quite cut it. Also, dog leads are thick, so the hooks needed to have an opening of at least 20mm. I remember that I had seen an advert for a blacksmith somewhere in deepest Wales who specialised in making hooks. Aren’t search engines wonderful things! We bought a selection of hooks online and two days later had a ‘what hook works best’ competition in the kitchen. The spade hooks won.
The final photo is the piece duly fitted to the utility room wall, with leads hanging. We think it looks pretty good, not too poncy at all. Even for the Yorkshire Dales. Perhaps the most important thing after the hooks being big enough is that even Caspar and Milton know which silhouette is which.
