Welcome to the 2008 June issue!

Welcome to this edition of Creative Woodworks & Crafts! We hope you'll enjoy this collection of projects and feature articles. This issue exemplifies how many of our regularly-featured designers keep the creative flame burning brightly through unceasing innovation. For example, Sheila Bergner-Landry combines a fretwork frame—using an apple blossom motif—with a segmented robin as an accent, and I hope you'll agree that the combination works really well. Similarly, Gary MacKay uses an intarsia technique for the lid of his Butterfly Box, and he also designed a separate lid piece for each of the box's four compartments. We have really come to appreciate Gary's innovative approach to scroll saw project designing; when he undertakes a project, it seems that he usually has a particular technique in mind that he is trying to work out. Being the engineer that he is, he delights in the challenge of setting new goals for using the scroll saw and his projects embody those challenges.

The Wilckens provide us with three very creative mini clock designs in this issue—between this edition and the previous one, that makes six Wilckens mini clocks. To take it one step further, they have also created a "shadow box" capable of displaying up to nine mini clocks. Unfortunately, the patterns for the shadow box would have taken up too much space in our pattern section, so we feature a photo of it to give you the general idea. The patterns for the shadow box may be purchased directly from the Wilckens.

We also want to welcome Jake Klipple to this issue. It's his first appearance in Creative Woodworks & Crafts, and his project wound up on the front cover. Welcome aboard, Jake, and we hope to see more of your designs in the future.

Also, please keep those Readers' Gallery photos coming—we enjoy them, learn a lot from them, and get to see the many creative ways that you, our readers, work with wood, as well as other materials. Speaking of other materials, Bill Groves, of Chapleau Ontario does beautiful cuttings in moose antlers, and you can see some of his excellent work on page 61 of this issue.

We feel very fortunate to be working with such a talented group of contributors. They are our lifeblood when it comes to innovation and we thank each and every one of them for keeping the creativity in Creative Woodworks & Crafts!

Until the next issue, wishing you all health and happiness.