Can't really show you a picture of it, but "Religion of Trees" became a carpentry workshop today! My friend and colleague O, a Swedish design provocateur, led us in in a whittling workshop that ended up producing a piece of usable furniture - a coat rack, just in time for the colder weather. O had scouted a freshly fallen branch from Prospect Park and cut it into small enough pieces that each students was charged with whittling down one "hook." All of them were ultimately power-screwed to a stand assembled (also in class) of pieces of leftover wood from the wood shop. Here it is as you'll never see it, posed in an empty hallway without any coats or bags hanging from it.
It was a deeply satisfying community activity. I'm hoping our hands-on work cutting the flesh of a tree (nice that it was from a
fallen branch rather than a cut one) in making something of human use will also deepen our discussions of trees as what Roland Ennos calls "partners in life."
Can't really show you a picture of it, but "Religion of Trees" became a carpentry workshop today! My friend and colleague O, a Swedish design provocateur, led us in in a whittling workshop that ended up producing a piece of usable furniture - a coat rack, just in time for the colder weather. O had scouted a freshly fallen branch from Prospect Park and cut it into small enough pieces that each students was charged with whittling down one "hook." All of them were ultimately power-screwed to a stand assembled (also in class) of pieces of leftover wood from the wood shop. Here it is as you'll never see it, posed in an empty hallway without any coats or bags hanging from it. 
It was a deeply satisfying community activity. I'm hoping our hands-on work cutting the flesh of a tree (nice that it was from a fallen branch rather than a cut one) in making something of human use will also deepen our discussions of trees as what Roland Ennos calls "partners in life."