Add depth and appeal to those CDs of stylized black and white borders gathering dust on your hard drive, without getting any sanding dust in there.

Create an endless list of printed paper goods for clients: business cards, stationary, album cover art, direct mail advertising, menus, heck with a decent color inkjet printer, and enough supplies, you could redo your own kitchen cabinets.

The first idea I had to use these images came oddly enough from the reality show, "The Apprentice". The two teams had the task of creating an advertising campaign for The Marquis Jet Card™. Anyway, the resulting materials were both truly dissappointing; so being a advertising creative myself, I started to realize what they were missing. I imagined the over-sized italian leather seats, the cup holders, and yes the miles of rich burl veneer. I knew what my campaign would've looked like, and what I'd need to produce the image in my head. Within a week I was on my way to bringing the beauty of the Real Wood veneers to graphic designers and creatives everywhere.

The second idea for how to make use of these images, was to be able to create an absolutely gorgeous menu, for my local sushi restaurant. What says Japan, more than Tamo Ash, one piece for the front cover, and a second for the back cover, flipped, and printed on both sides of the page, so it would look like the menu was actually made from veneer. A very inexpensive, but high-end solution.

The third idea was to redesign, or create a web-site using the woods as planar surfaces which would appear/disapper as the user moused around on the page. This was back in the days of Flash MX, and I never got around to it. It would've been very cool, though, extremely time consuming to get it right.

Have you ever made a hardwood origami piece? Of course not, veneer doesn't fold easily. But now, all you need are the high resolution image files, and a decent quality color printer. You'll be amazed at the rich and intricate fold patterns you can achieve. The same goes for the paper specimens.

My intention in creating this collection was to simply provide you with the raw materials, as they are, without getting in the way of your creativity. So each piece after sanding with 220 grit paper, was coated 3 times with a clear, oil based, non-coloring varnish. I figured I'd leave any coloring up to you and Photoshop™.

Of course you can change the images, cut them up, and recombine them as layers in Photoshop via transparency modifications to make entirely new wood species, with original grain patterns. Just look at some of my own artworks, by clicking here, and clicking through my "Digital Visionary" portfolio of fine art.

They can be used just like veneer, except that each piece is a perfect replica, so rather than using 18 sheets from the same log to make a large sunburst pattern, you can now generate perfectly repeating patterns in less time, without wasting wood.

Perfect for use as texture maps for use by high-end 3-D modelling applications and in CGI work for film and television. Here's an example, made in Strata CX, while still on the demo. It was a 1080i, size frame, I had to cut it down to have it fit on this page, using simple shapes, and the 600ppi files as textures.

Also these are awesone as textures for use in Second Life™, and depending on your skills with their "In World", 3-D rendering tools, it is possible to make mad Linden $, by making object d'arte for the Second Life crowd. Just don't forget to let me know, before you purchase your license.

You might also make use of these images in architectural walk through models of new homes, to help visualize, and/or to plan countertops, kitchen cabinets, and hardwood floors.

I just had an idea for a film script. Wouldn't it be interesting if, "The Transformers", the new/old robots were made from wood, rather than metal, just think splinters rather than sparks. The "good" ones were made by an eccentric scultpter somewhere deep in British Columbia. It would make a great story, if written well, and could be action with a positive environmental message. Well, I've got the woods, if anyone's interested in making the movie. It'd make an awesome sequel. They don't call it "Rock Maple" for nothing.

I almost had time to give Al Franken an online membership when he hosted "The Al Franken Show" on the Sundance Channel, but he went off the air before I was able to. One, or two sheets of paper and some tape, and the dents and dings in the maple wall behind his chair wouldn't have been so visually disruptive, for me anyway. I do lean a touch to the left politically, who doesn't these days, plus the right wing's veneer is always impeccable.

For the sculpter the ability to fully visualize the final piece is of paramount importance; now he/she can pre-visualize the form in all sorts of rare and exotic wood surfaces, provided they have access to a decent 3-D modelling application and computer.

It was suggested early on that I put together a "fine art exhibition" consisting of large format framed prints made from the raw images you'll be able to download when you become a client. Yes, they're that nice. The image below was made in less than one day, and is fully 24" by 16" at full print resolution, (300ppi).

If design for television or film, is your role, you should know that the images in the collection are high enough resolution/large enough in size to be used as fully movable backgrounds for full 1080i HD format commercials, bumps, and/or title and credit crawls.

You could also use these images to construct GUIs for all sorts of software applications. Wouldn't an OSX compatible widget, cut from Walnut Burl be cool. However if it's for resale, I'm going to have to ask for additional terms, and potentially more money, but we'll see. Just don't forget to let me know when you set up your account.

Web sites need guis too. Using Real Woods is an easy and effective way to humanize an interface. To create your own screen art for the new Apple iPhone™, or full screen wallpapers for laptops and tabletop computers, all you need to do is choose your favorite species of wood, and crop it.

Just think if the next version of Microsoft Windows was made using real wood surface images, rather than the currently plasticized solid colors; being given the depth and beauty of the dashboard of a Bentley, instead of the fake plastic look. Which in my personal opinion is an utterly common answer, which is all but entirely lacking art.

Or if you'd like, you can use the textural unpredictablity to roughen edges on type, or to add a nice rich full color texture to your businesses logo and stationery package.