From time to time we will feature an artist who inspires us, who we admire, who we learn from. We are all in this together and we can glean so much from each other when we are open to it!

I knew right away I wanted to feature our good friend Jackie Elkins for the first installment. When I told him I wanted to interview him about his handcrafted walking sticks over the phone, he exclaimed, “Are you sure?!”

An infectious laugh, a heart of gold, and stories for days, yes I was sure.

Jackie has been making walking sticks since 2002, branded at that time as Jax Badass Sticks. He made 980 walking sticks under that name before changing the name to Labor of Love.

When asked why he changed the name, he said “Oh, my mom said I needed to tone it down. She loves what I’m doing, but she hated the name! So they’ve all been labors of love since then… They’re still bad ass sticks though!” he laughed. Yes, they are! He is on stick #548 under Labor of Love. That makes 1,528 total if you’re counting.

Jackie spends an average of 20 hours on a stick. And he always has several going at any given time. Most are made from Eastern Red Cedar, which comes in a wide range of colors from blonde, to red, to deep mahogany browns, but he has also been known to use dogwood and hickory. Each stick is painstakingly sanded using sand paper in increasingly fine grit. When he has it as smooth as it will get, he oils the wood with tung oil. He used to use linseed oil, but found it never seemed to dry all the way, and left the stick feeling tacky. Although he is conservative with the oil, it gives the wood a glass like luster.

We have a collection of badass sticks, because Jackie sometimes uses our shop to work on them. He had brought his two latest labor of loves with him, and I gathered some more up for a quick photo shoot. It was like he was seeing old friends! It is clear that the name is appropriate; a lot of love goes into these creations.

From Ontario to California, these sticks have seen some miles. There is one in the CMT office in LA, one was bought by the EVP of MTV networks, Robert Randolph and Gretchen Wilson each own one, and one even saved Hank Williams, Jr.’s life… Of course we had to get that story!

“When I was working at the Fontanel mansion, I had broke my arm, and Greg Oswald at William Morris agency asked would I like him to get Hank to sign a few sticks for me where I could charge more. So he signed a few sticks for me, and I ended up giving him a stick. It was really red, and I didn’t even brand it or sign it or anything. Anyway, I saw him again some time later, and he told me I had saved his life! I asked what he meant and he said he walks with that thing every day, six miles up and down his driveway.”

In other news, Hank Williams, Jr. must have quite a driveway!

An average Labor of Love will go for $250, but they can go for much more. A Hank signature or embellishments, for instance, may increase the price. Of course one would also expect that a more ornate piece, one that required more time to create, would also fetch a bigger price. The most expensive “walking stick” that Jackie ever sold went for somewhere around $1500, and was more a piece of installation wall art than a walking stick. It had a massive root system that, when inverted, resembled branches with crinoid fossils, feathers, and coyote pelt hanging from its various limbs. I am sure it is a sight to behold and, knowing what goes into these creations, worth every penny.

One of the things I greatly admire about Jackie Elkins, is his curious mind and thirst for learning. He learned to identify trees by sight from his coworker when he was in horticulture. He said he picked his brain every chance he got. He can identify wood in a finished product by the grain. I know this is not a unique skill, but I am impressed every time someone does it! And what IS a unique gift, is Jackie’s constant sense of wonder and unyielding appetite for knowledge. I am in awe of it, and I love to have a good “I wonder” session with him.

I wondered about the fine black lines in some of the sticks. They are whimsical and delicate and remind me of a Ralph Steadman ink drawing. He was told it is an early stage of petrifaction and he has found that leaving the raw stick outside in the sun for a while enhances them.

Jackie’s Labors of Love are available via direct sale, so please send any inquiries our way and we will get you in touch with Jackie. The best way to reach us is by emailing curator@thenotionsjourney.com

With all the steps involved in his process, I had to know- what was his favorite part? He said he has these moments, “ah-ha moments”, when he’s out in the woods, and he spots a piece, and he says to himself, “oh I wonder what this will look like?”

Now, Jackie, there you go wondering again! Please, never stop!