RAWGE'S CROSS PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION


6-foot wooden cross in my flower garden outside my bedroom window. This cross was made from an old piece of wood I found and has that "old rugged cross" look.	I made this wind chime a few years ago. Recently we found a white dove that had been electrocuted and managed to nurse it back to health. After releasing it, it decided to make its new home on this cross.	I was honored to be asked to build a cross for the sanctuary in our church. My family and some friends from the youth group helped through the process.	I used some 125-year old wood that was salvaged from an old barn that had fallen down. I joined the wood with a traditional ship-lap joint.

The cross is a Latin shape and is about 9-feet tall and weighs over 120 pounds.	The old wood is beautiful...	... with many cracks, nail holes, and other pieces of its history.	Here is a picture of the cross on the sanctuary wall.

I was blessed to be part of a group that built over 3,000 white crosses for a 9/11 and Iraq war memorial.	The event culminated with a day of prayer on September 11th. It was very moving to see the emotion as people walked among the crosses.	This is a Milagro (miracle) cross that I made several years ago. I bought the milagro charms from Mexico where this cross is very popular.	I built this Milagro cross a very long time ago, as I was just learning woodwork. The milagro charms are made from melted-down coins, spoons, brass fittings, old jewelry, etc.

I made this wooden box for a close friend. It was made from an old shipping pallet. The box is constructed with no nails.	Of course it had to have a cross, so I carved a Latin cross on the inside of the lid	I was inspired by recent trip to Mexico, after seeing many beautiful Mexican wood crosses. To emulate their art, I carved a cross made from a rare wood, know locally as "two-by-four"	The cross is a Latin Fleuree shape. To complete the floral pattern, I carved a couple of flower rosettes. I mounted it in a heavy base made from joined 4'x4's.

I added some pretty Mexican colors and it turned out nice. I probably won't be invited to any Mexican wood art shows, but I enjoyed making it.	I always wanted a rock polisher so my son and I made one - a giant one that polishes about 75 lbs of rocks at a time! The noisy machine works 24-hrs a day and takes ~ 2 months to complete. The machine turns ordinary rocks into beautiful stones.	I then use a stencil and a diamond-tipped engraver to etch a cross pattern on the rocks. The etched surface will accept paint but paints rubs right off of the perfectly smooth surface of the polished rock.	Once painted and re-buffed, they look nice. I give the rocks away to kids and they really loves them. I've used them at Sunday school and kids love to take them home. I saw one little girl about a month after I gave her one and she still had it in her pocket!

These three crosses are for the Easter production at our church. They are so big, I had to build them in the yard.	The tallest cross is 12 feet and the others are 10 feet. They will represent the 3 crosses at Mount Golgotha	Each cross has a small pedestal for someone to stand on during the production and large spikes bent so that their hands can rest inside to give the illusion of spikes through their palms.	We found an old cross in our church attic . It was probably something put together for a production of some sort. I decided to try to rebuild it into something for Easter with traditional Easter colors.


My son and Steven, a close friend helped rebuild it. We replaced the bad wood, reinforced the remaining wood, painted it and added a yellow trim.	We mounted it onto a stepped base with brown vinyl and decorative tacks to hide the heavy wood platform. It looks really nice!	This is the finished cross in the foyer of our sanctuary. It will look nice outdoors at the sunrise service.	My son and I made a kite for our church's annual kite-flying day and picnic. It was made from recycled materials (old disposable tablecloth, fishing line, old wood, etc) and it actually flew!!

I made this cross for the youth group at our church. They have services in an old warehouse. Their group is called Route 1 Ministries - it's not just a destination, but a journey. I made a wooden cross and covered it in old license plates from all over the US.	This is a wooden box I made for Floresta, one of my favorite ministries. It is made from re-claimed wood and has a cross and Psalm 24 scripture engraved inside. Visit www.floresta.org