Jim, those are beautiful! They remind me of the walking sticks my brother makes – he strips branches, then oils them to a sheen. He won’t use anything other than limbs which have fallen naturally (or pieces of already-dead tres), and sometimes doesn’t remove quite all the bark, just to show the wonderful contrast of colors.

I’ve always loved the look and feel of art tools – crochet hooks, paintbrushes and the like – but it never occurred to me that the tool itself could be the piece of art.

I think selling these is a great idea. I bet they’d do well on Ebay. If you do decide to sell your hooks, would you let me know? I’m (always) ridiculously poor, but I’d really love to have one of these. I work at an after-school program and have taught about 30 kids how to crochet over the years. I know they’d be blown away by seeing a handmade hook.

I can be reached at spidercamp @ gmail.com. Please stay in touch – you seem super.

Best,
Jessica