Filed under: Architecture, Furniture, Industrial, Inspiration, Nature, Our Work, Surface
I made these finials to go on top of the farm rollers I’ve mentioned before. The oak body of the finial is turned from a solid piece of wood. I like the checking (cracks) you can achieve with a solid piece of wood….the outside surface drys more quickly than the inside core of the wood so it cracks. If you were to laminate several smaller pieces of wood together and than turn the piece you would get little or no checking which is generally the most desired affect but not for me, I like to see the grain and nature of a single block of wood. The shape of the finial was inspired by a classical urn shape, often fashioned in metal and seen on old European entry gates, in stone on the roof of 18th century Palladian styled manor house or furniture…they’re everywhere. The zinc leaves are cut from salvaged roofing material. I just cut random size leaves, gathered them together in a pattern designed to represent the agave plant…..drilled the top of the urn and forced them in. You can use these in pairs to create symmetry or singly in another composition. Outside, a pair of these on the turned oak columns could give a garden path a little zest.
The agave plant was the inspiration for the zinc leaves.
How great would a section of this tree be as a table base? Because the tree is being choked by a non native invasive makes it a mark…
It’s getting cut any way …
What better way to usher in an earlier spring than to snip a few flowering tree branches and place them in water in your warm home. Watch the buds swell and than explode. Pictured here is cornus mas, a type of dog wood.
I think the term salvaged has generally been reserved for shipwrecks and other property or goods saved with the intention of being reused or sold. Architectural salvage has been a familiar phrase to many of us, but the term put to plants may seem a bit off, but for me digging up any very large, long lived mature specimen just seems like salvaging. It requires finding these specimens in unexpected places, often on old estates slated for demolition. Like the the beauty one finds in a salvage architectural antique door surround or old window, these plants have a size and beauty only acquired with time. They bring instant maturity to a new garden without all the fuss of waiting 30 years.
This is a converted chicken coupe I’ve been working on. It is also my summer kitchen. I’m to the point on the project where I need to build luvered vents for ventilation above the windows. I’m very excited because I’d like the vents to also function as habitat for bats. I’m currently looking for reclaimed unfinished cedar boards to build them as I’ve found out bats prefer raw wood to hold on to. I also need to find bat guana ( bat shit ) to put in little cheese cloth bags, staple them to the newly constructed vent to attract new residents. There will be screening on the inside as to keep the bats out of the inside. Why bats? Why not….they eat a lot of bugs and they don’t bother me
So we had a really big wet heavy snow this winter that snapped many trees in half. One such cedar ( juniparius virginianaI ) lives in my yard. When I came upon the tree I was shocked by the dramatic new silhouette. Took a deep breath and studied the tree for a bit. The break in the trunk was ripped and torn and a large section of the tree was just hanging there exposing a long trunk of exfoliating bark. I found it to be beautifully exposed. It wasn’t until a little bit later after continuing to look at it that I thought I could leave the branch to die wear it lay, loose all it’s needles and turn that wonderful gray driftwood color. So as in a wild woodland somewhere, I will observe the succession of a tree and how it develops with new plants that grow around it into a new environment……unless I can’t stand how messy it looks and get out the chain saw.
Filed under: Garden, Inspiration, Nature, Why Not? | Tags: birds, color, fall, groundwork, nesting, plant, poison ivy, spring, trees, Why Not?
Why not plant Poison Ivy on a large tree. For one, you can see the beautiful fall color. If you plant it on a tree off the beaten path you can avoid contact. It creates heavy dense cover for nesting birds in an other wise open branched tree. It also produces berries that the birds love. With a little thought, You can have a plant inside a plant.
