Descending Ashtray

I’m not sure where the idea came from, but when I arrived in Des Moines last Friday, Gabe and I immediately started discussing and sketching ideas for a joint project in his newly-cleaned shop, something that would combine Gabe’s freeform and organic sculptural style with my more structured and conceptual approach. Interestingly, we both had a very similar idea, so it was easy to get going, even though I spilled some water on the sketch. Oh, and we only had one day to work.

I began Saturday morning by planing some poplar to 1/4-inch thickness so I could use it to construct the sides of the 5×5 cube that would be suspended in the tree’s branches. When that was all done, I cut the planed stock on the table saw to 5 inches with the table saw’s blade set to 45 degrees.

I took quite a few breaks to spectate as Gabe showed off his facility with the bandsaw and his sanding contraption, constructing the trunk and branches of the tree from pieces of walnut.

Did I say facility? Watching Gabe use these two tools is like watching a veteran, world-class musician play violin, so measured and intentional are his movements. I haven’t had a great deal of experience with either tool, as my work is more geometric in nature, and I was extremely impressed.

I left Gabe to his performance and made my way to the drill press, where I drilled 25 holes in each of the 6 sides I’d just cut, followed by some quick sanding.

Finally, after a quick-ish glue up (hint: use masking tape to construct a lightweight cube in this way) and some lunch, we were able to start piecing the trunk and branches together. It was a little like flower arrangement, placing the branches, and Gabe’s sophisticated spatial imagination really came into play as he sanded and molded branches to the tight geometry of the cube, weaving the branches in and out.

Too quickly, I had to leave the workshop and the nearly-complete project.

The most amazing part of the day was the speed with which the elements came together in a cohesive whole, even with a couple of setbacks and having to create a few jigs on the fly. I don’t recall ever working so collaboratively with someone else (I used to hate group projects in art school). It was the highlight of the weekend for me, and I left inspired with a lot of new ideas for my own work. Thanks, Gabe, for a great day. Now, what should we call it? And when are we doing Number 2 in Portland?