What a great idea! How did you get such a clean cut? It's really awesome to see something so simple yet often overlooked in our busy world. Keep up the beautiful work! ^_^
The pine cone (& caragana) person is "Agri-Gifts by Lucien" in Legal, Alberta, Canada. He basically slices the cone length-wise so he gets a thin wafer from the middle of the cone. Then he finishes with a polyurethine (sp?) & findings.