A few years ago I made a couple 10 inch wood-burned plaques – one of Chester the dalmatian, and one of a pattern of a Pomeranian, which was supposed to look like Alki, but I was never very happy with it. I used a pattern because I wasn’t sure how to make an all-white dog look good on a plaque. Chester was easy with all his spots!

I wanted to Make Alki a plaque, but after she was diagnosed with cancer I felt like I would be making her memorial plaque, and that just wasn’t right. So I put it off and left it for later.

So today I got out my woodburning tool, a plaque, and picked out one of my favorite pictures of Alki, and got to work. I drew what I wanted on the enlarged picture and transferred it to the plaque in pencil to start with. It’s so hard to get started on a project like this.

Mostly because at this stage I look at it and think ‘OMG, that looks like total crap’. Artists can be so hard on themselves.

Oh, hey, that looks ok! It turned out pretty nice. I had one little spot I messed up, but I was able to sand it off.  Now I can have plaques in the hallway of my two friends who were such a big part of our lives for so many years 🙂

Update: I was burning my name and the date on the back, with a little inscription for Alki, and I looked up her records to see what her birth date was and today would have been her 15th birthday!  What are the odds I would pick today to finally make her plaque?