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Thursday, June 7, 2012

Salvage!

In my efforts to build functional art that answers to my aesthetic, and which has the acquired energy unique to age and weathering, I often find myself at garage sales, junk shops, the dump, metal recyclers, and...the beach!


My good friend Jay was up for the adventure, and wanted some of the material when we finally mill it into boards.  He had the skiff, me the engine.  We left the beach at near high tide to minimize the work we'd needed to get the log floating.

Excavating under, so we can place fulcrums and levers.



Once rolled, we can now lever it downhill on log skids



She floats!



Now to tame the floating beast.



We experimented with various tow lengths and finally arrived at an easy-to-manage side-tie.


The above images chronicle a typical mission--in this case a BIG yellow cedar log which we would have to get creative to move.

The log is a ring-section of the tree.  If we mill it in a vertical plane (reference the last image) we'll probably get 18 vertical-grain boards of about 1 1/4" rough thickness.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

More interactive pieces...

Meditation Altar.  Re-sawn fir,  salvaged copper.


The copper plate provides safe placement of a candle. 


Altar 


This custom swing swivels,  bounces on elastics, and swings.


Webbing provides chafe protection...



....held in place with seine twine tied in constrictor knots, while the tubing is stretched....



stiffness of elasticity, and length of rebound are determined by the number of sections one attaches



copper tubing is removed and 3/16" amsteel loops are run through the eyes, securing the elastics to the attachment points.