DIY Geometric Bear Wood Art

Using Wood Color as the Design

The visual impact of this piece comes from choosing hardwood species with noticeably different natural colors and arranging them into a simple geometric silhouette.

Walnut provides the darkest tones, butternut adds a warmer mid-tone and white oak creates the lighter sections. Using the wood itself for the contrast keeps the finished piece simple while letting the grain remain part of the design.

Choosing and Preparing the Scraps

This project works well with relatively small hardwood offcuts because each individual section of the bear only requires a small piece of material.

Milling the scraps to a consistent thickness before cutting the individual shapes makes the final assembly much easier and keeps the face of the artwork relatively even.

Cutting the Geometric Shapes

Each section is cut from the thin hardwood stock and fitted against the neighboring pieces to build the overall bear silhouette.

Accuracy matters because the seams between the pieces become part of the finished design. Small differences in angle or size can become more noticeable once several sections meet in the same area.

Building the Pattern

The individual hardwood pieces are arranged so the darker and lighter species help define the different planes of the geometric bear.

This is where the scrap selection becomes part of the design process. Changing which species is used in each section can dramatically change the way the finished artwork reads.

Layering and Assembly

Once the layout is established, the individual pieces are assembled into the finished artwork while maintaining the intended pattern and alignment.

The layered construction gives the finished piece more visual depth than simply painting a geometric pattern onto a flat board.

Adding the White-Oak Frame

A simple white-oak frame surrounds the finished bear and gives the artwork a clean edge without competing with the contrasting hardwood pattern.

Keeping the frame relatively simple helps the geometric pattern remain the focal point.

Making Better Use of Hardwood Offcuts

Projects like this are a good use for hardwood pieces that are too small for furniture or larger shop projects but still have interesting grain and color.

Instead of saving those scraps indefinitely, the different species become part of the design itself and turn into a finished piece of wall art.