Some Log Work

First up is a tree I put together for my cats this winter. Birch trunk, maple branches. Mortise and tenoned together, the uppermost branch still has barck attatched.

Next is another tree built for cats. This one is red cedar. For the first one I showed you, I basically took some branches and simulated a living tree, with platforms for kitties. For this one, I simply found the perfect branch, shaped some platforms and figured out how it all fit together.

I like the second one a little better. An equal amount of work went into both....but the second one looks effortless. My will is not imposed upon the natural material as much, letting the character of the tree come through.

The second tower/tree actually not quite finished--I'll update the photo in a week or so after I get a chance to make some minor aesthetic changes.

This log arbor was previously used at a home show. Here, it has benches added as well as additional supports.

This was going to be an entrance way to our vegetable garden, but that would conflict with other construction that is going on in that part of the yard, so for this season anyway, the arbor shall just be a sitting area on the south side of our property beneath the cherry tree.

Evolution of a concept part 1

Stone and Water.

I like things that are all curvy and flowing. I want to see big, curvy, flowing shapes, made out of individual pieces, each one unique, all flowing together in patterns inspired by nature.

 I want to see stone, flowing like water. Like waves inwhich each and every droplet is discernable.

It was cool building this inside of an exposition center, very cool meeting hundreds of people, sharing my concept with so many people, getting such an amazing, positive response. Now I want to build stuff like this outside, in nature, from local materials, nestled into the earth, moving and flowing in harmony with the nature around it. That's what I want to do.

We can have fun. We can build playful structures, without doing great harm to the world around us. Indeed, we should build playful and inspiring structures, in honor of the world which surrounds us, from the raw materials of our world, immediately available to us all of the time.

There's plenty more to come. We're only getting warmed up. There is a lot more that can be done with the concepts and motifs here displayed. Thanks for looking.

Rock  paper scissors--this is a game that I have not lost a single 

time since I was a child. My secret strategy has always been to 

throw three rocks in a row. Think about it, it is the natural thing 

to do. Your hand is already in the fist shape as you pound away 

"one two three go!" might as well just keep it it that formation, 

the natural formation, the rock formation. People who maybe have 

never had the pleasure of working with stone often tell me "wow, 

that must be hard work"! But looking at rock-paper-scissors, at 

least in this scenario, throwing "rock" is clearly the easiest 

choice. Back to my strategy--three "rocks" in a row. This gambit is 

known as the avalanche, and it's not hard to see why it is so 

effective. Rock. It is obviously the strongest of the three, the 

most sturdy, durable, will obviously long outlast paper which is 

sure to disintegrate with but a few months of exposure to the 

elements. 

The scissors won't be long behind.

 
Let's examine the issues from a more utilitarian perspective. Give me 

a few good rocks... what can we do with these? Well, we could build, 

for example, an arch--one of the strongest architectural structures 

ever discovered:

Elegant and beautiful in its simplicity, no?

  
Sure, you could build a similar structure from paper, but the thinner 

arrangement of papers' material basis requires many more "sheets". 

Five hands stacked atop each other flat just won't make a full arch, 

and the logistics of getting many more hands together and working in 

concert.... it is very discouraging. Plus we'd all be palm upon palm 

and some of y'all get kinda clammy and gross. I could see the logistics 

working, but we'd have to sever the hands first in order to make it 

work. Without seeing a proof of concept first, I am just not willing 

to do all that cutting. 
 

We tried to replicate the arch, using only scissors, in the name of 

science we tried.
 

 
The results were discouraging at best.

  
But this entire dissertation is really just me throwing a bunch of scholarly 

erudition at a problem that I had solved back in the fourth grade, using 

nothing more than natural human intuition: 

Nothing beats rock.

I leave you now with a quotable quote from a wise man of much reknown:

  
"I have seldom encountered any problem in life so vast or insurmountable, 

that throwing a few well aimed rocks (1) at it didn't improve matters somewhat" 

Doctor Izzle Ignatious

Footnotes:


1) I believe the emminent Doctor Izzle would agree with me that a rock aimed in anger is not a well aimed rock