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 a church sanctuary. My family and some friends from their youth group helped through the process.	I used some 125-year old wood that was salvaged from an old barn that had fallen down and was being removed for home construction. 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.	Sharing the story of the Mexico trip and the cross with kids at kid's church	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 hand-cut a stencil and carve the pattern into the rocks with a sand blaster cabinet. I can add paint or leave them natural.

I give the rocks away to kids and they really love 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 a church Easter production. 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.

I made this cross for a youth group that meet iin 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 reflective license plates from all over the US. They really look cool in black-light.	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	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 my wife's youth group. It is 4' tall and 2'wide. I designed it on a computer and then printed the curved sections. I used the prints to help me make a full-size pattern on cardboard. I transferred the pattern to the aluminum diamond-plate and cut it with a jig saw. I added bolts around the edge for effect. We wanted to show the both the strength and beauty of the cross's promise. The teens love it!


I built this cross with my good friend Tyler. The base is one-piece, made from 1" plywood and braced with 2"x6"on the back. The faux 3-d side pieces are made from the same material and held in place with t-brackets painted to match the wall. The entire piece was painted with exterior grade primer and then finished to match the niche wall color. I built steel brackets to hang it 20" out from the wall to have interesting shadows when illuminated from the front.