Bending Wood

I'm taking a carpentry class at the vocational school and am trying to build two bedside tables for my class project. My big dilemma right now is what type of wood to use. I picked out some wood types based on what looked the most beautiful to me. Just so happens that every single one is a imported hardwood (aka cuttin down rainforests). So now, I have to either pick a less flashy domestic wood and stain it to cover up the fact that its very plain or compromise my values and build with Brazilian Rosewood. Ugh.

I never thought something like this would matter to me. I always pick the more sustainable option. Flashy, trendy and colorful little things rarely overcome my sense of doing the right thing and the big picture but that was BEFORE it was my own artistic creation. I want to be proud of the way it looks with no caveats or disclaimers like, "oh, well it looks really common and plain but no rainforests were cut down to make it." I'm always bitching that good designers should be able to please their aesthetic sensibilities within sustainable practices and that those that failed to do so were just suffering from a lack of innovation and creativity. Big words until I actually am put in a position to have to change a design I was perfectly pleased with.

Oh well. I'll just have to be satisfied with the great moral superiority of my bedside tables instead of the beautiful color and grain. UGH. Its just that I soooooo dislike people who walk around satisfied with their moral superiority. Especially the hippie superiors. They can be such judgemental as**oles.

I already feel like a big jerk from making my best friend Samm feel bad for shopping at Walmart.

Maybe I can get away with just adding a Rosewood veneer - only using a teeny, tiny bit of Rosewood.