Descending Ashtray

Last weekend, I did something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time - get to know a sawyer. I’ve been on a big local kick lately, and finding someone close to home who cuts wood close to home seems to me like the environmentally appropriate thing to do, and I like the idea of my work being grounded in the place I call home.

Tyler Evans of Urban Hardwood Recovery works by day as a computer guy, something I know a little bit about, and as I do, he seems to find a certain satisfaction in working with his hands. And a chainsaw. And some pretty advanced thermodynamics, in the form of a home-built, industrial strength wood kiln that resides in his backyard. When Sarah and I visited, Tyler had a full load of Oak going, in the middle of a 4-6 month drying cycle. The kiln, tucked behind his unassuming suburban house, is capable of drying two stacks of lumber 23 feet long, five feet high, and about nine feet wide. That’s a lot of lumber, way more than even the most dedicated hobbyist could use. So he’s taken to selling it, out of his home.

The lumber all comes from the Portland area, as the name of his company might indicate. Property owners call Tyler when a tree falls down or wants felling, and he comes out with a chainsaw and trailer to remove the tree. He then takes the wood to another guy with a bandsaw mill who slabs the tree into lumber up to four inches thick (try finding 16/4 oak at your hardwood supplier sometime), which Tyler then carts home to air dry before kilning. Depending on the situation, he slabs some trees himself with an Alaskan Mill.

As you might imagine, Tyler has some pretty good stories to share of hidden items within the trees he removes. He showed us a railroad spike and toy car which had grown into the trunk of a tree, probably after being placed there by a small child somewhere along the way. Bullets and nails are also especially common, and like toy cars and railroad spikes, often damage the bandsaw blades.

The selection on hand Saturday included Oregon Cherry, Black Walnut, English Walnut, Spalted Maple, and lots of other interesting pieces that you wouldn’t typically see in a lumberyard. While we were there, a guy showed up and bought some lumber that only a mother … err … woodworker could truly love, including some old barn wood rescued from Tyler’s fire pile, and a piece of White Oak with flame, curl, tiger … pretty much any hard-to-plane grain pattern you can think of … all in one board. This slab of spalted maple burl was particularly impressive - about 12 inches thick and 2 feet square. It will make quite a bowl for someone.

I went home with a really nice piece of 8/4 spalted maple about eight feet long and 12 inches wide, as well as an incredible bit of 8/4 Black Walnut of roughly the same dimensions … all for the very reasonable price of $150. Turned into veneer, those boards will go a long way. Plus, wood from other lumberyards would be more expensive, and without the stories I got to hear while browsing. Urban Hardwood is not the kind of place you go to stock up for a project; rather, it’s the place you go to imagine your next project. If you’re a woodworker in the Portland area, I suggest you get to know Tyler. If you’re not, seek out a local sawyer for your next project.

In my other life, I am a graphic designer. In fact, I am the PR/Marketing Chair of the Portland chapter of AIGA, which is a national organization for graphic designers. So recently, I found myself pushing a design event on Portland art blogs, and I figure, the least I can do is hawk my own wares.

Tomorrow night (Wednesday), AIGA Portland is holding an event called The Urban Forest Project, which seeks to promote green, environmentally-friendly, design. In April of 2007, 25 local designers donated their time to create unique banners for the project, which hung from poles throughout downtown Portland. Tomorrow night, they’ll be unveiled in their second lives, as handmade bags, which will be sold to benefit a local non-profit called Friends of Trees. Shortly after, the remaining bags will be sold online, details to follow. Here’s a sneak peak of a one of the bags, based on a banner made by Chris Bell - they’re really pretty amazing.

SOCIO XV: Urban Forest Project Celebration
September 19th, 2007
6 - 9 PM
Art Institute of Portland: Gallery
1122 NW Davis St
Portland, Oregon
Doors open: 6:00pm

The event is free for AIGA members; $5 for everyone else.

Last weekend, Sarah and I embarked on a long-overdue reacquaintance with Portland’s organized art scene, taking in the Portland Art Museum, Art in the Pearl, and lastly, the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in its new home in Portland’s North Park Blocks.

Bridging the divide between Portland’s Old Town and swanky Pearl District, Labor Day Weekend found the park crawling with artists and not-so-art-snobs. Art in the Pearl is a typical urban arts fair, drawing regional photographers, Marriot-quality paintings, and more recycled and rusty bits remade in chair, bench and clock form than you can shake a whittled stick at. You have to appreciate these artisans’ dedication - it can’t be easy to truck your work around from week to week, living under a white folding tent in unpredictable weather. But I am often turned off by their same-ness. I’ve seen these kinds of travelling shows in several cities, and the goods don’t change with the geo-coordinates. If, by stroke of luck, you see an original idea being shown/sold, you can bet that you will see three tents containing that idea the next year, and nine more the year after. At times, you get the sense that the vendors could be selling paintings or pork pies (whatever those are). The work lacks passion, and finesse.

So it was with extreme pleasure that Sarah and I found the “Craft in America” show at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts. The first thing I saw when I walked in the door was a beautiful Nakashima bench, all live-edge walnut with dovetail mending a naturally-occurring check in the end grain. Straight maple spindles reach up out of the slab forming a back that just looks comfortable and yielding. A design so pure, so simple, that it would be impossible to recreate or commodify.

Turning my head, a Sam Maloof rocker whose entire form contained not a single straight line, all bandsawn curves smoothed to a buttery sheen from hours of rubbed oil. Unlike the Nakashima bench, the rocker looks complicated, a form that you can sense has been perfected over endless iterations, and a lifetime of dedication. But it looks right. No gaps, no rough spots from too-quick sanding. Incredible.

And that was just the woodwork.

Lovers of jewelry, pottery, and textiles will be picking their jaws up, too. The show, organized by a non-profit called “Craft in America, LLC” also includes a book and DVD produced in concert, so if you aren’t located nearby, you can still experience this wonderful survey of the best in American craft. I purchased the DVD at the show, and I’d highly recommend it.

Craft in America ends its Portland run at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts on September 23. The Museum is FREE to the public and not so large that it couldn’t be seen over a long Friday lunch, or savored on a Saturday afternoon.

Museum of Contemporary Crafts
724 NW Davis Street
Portland, Oregon
(503) 223.2654
Open Tuesday–Sunday 11 AM to 6 PM, Thursday 11 AM to 8 PM