urban tree forge

New artisans at UTF

2010-02-11T15:57:00.028-05:00

Hi Everybody!

So, the snow storms of 2010 have had the cumulative effect of slowing me down long enough to catch up on some much-belated blog postings!! There has been so much activity in the past year and especially since the completion of the carved tables we provided for the G-20 summit... multiple posts will be needed to keep it all in readable segments.

Fist off… a huge “Thank You!” to everyone that helped us bring the monumental task of completing these tables to fruition. We had over a dozen people help us out with this endeavor.. The outpouring of help and spirit of Pittsburgh people here is just amazing! It’s so awesome to be a part of such a community. Thanks again everyone.

We were honored to have a few new artisans take up residencies in "Studio" and start considering some of the great "City wood" we have available for consideration.
Earlier in the year Jim Ladner Custom Furniture began tenancy... and just in time too! Jim was able to offer us some of his time to help in the fabrication of the G-20 tables. Jim was instrumental in our on-time completion of this undertaking. Jim has also been using some of our “City Wood” walnut in a couple of his projects for his clients… and with wonderful results as these images show. The grain and character of these walnut sections just makes these pieces jump. Jim has also been reshaping salvaged joists to create cabinet doors for another project. Amazing work Jim! It’s great to have you in “Studio” and considering our city’s urban resources.

We recently welcomed Jason Kirker into the “Studio." Kirke, is an endeavor started by Jason Kirker, who has been creating lighting fixtures and other furnishings from salvage materials with his business. Jason participated in “Arbor Aid 2009,” along with over 20 other artisans. (Read more about this great annual fund-raising event supporting the work of Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest on their website.) You can check out some of Kirke's work on his Picassa gallery .

We've also had Jason Boone, Geoff D., and Greg, all of whom work with architectural firm Bohlin Cywinski Jackson join us for individual projects for their homes. And just last week we welcomed our newest resident, Krishnan Padmanabhan a graduate from CMU, into the "Studio" to begin the creative endeavor of taking his 2D work in another dimension.

Over the past year, we've had many other artists "In Studio" for individual projects... more on these great projects coming in our next posting.

Welcome to Urban Tree Forge everyone!

And may your ventures be filled with the prosperous ingenuity and creativity that helps you grow to new levels!

Next post, we'll show you some highlights of the many projects we were fortunate to see pass through our doors the past year...

G-20 Opportunity

2009-09-10T00:55:00.018-04:00

Wow!!
GREAT NEWS!!

Urban Tree Forge to create
Tables for the G-20 Summit here in Pittsburgh

Thank you!!... to Phipps Conservatory for the great opportunity to participate in our city's hosting of the G-20 summit!
Phipps Conservatory, located here in the city of Pittsburgh, asked us to design twelve tables for a dinner and discussion session that will be held in their beautifully remodeled facility for the G-20 summit, and we just received the official approval to begin the project.

Uhhhh... just one thing...

we only have two weeks to turn 12 oak slabs into tables!

Fortunately, we just happen to have a number of trees that we recovered from Riverview Park, located here in the city, that were removed last year.

Joe and Ben Suto of Lumberjack Tree Service were kind enough to allow us the opportunity to utilize the trunks of some of these magnificent beauties that the city was forced to remove for local projects. We weren't sure how we would use them, but we knew they were just too amazing to walk away from... and now we know why, especially since they just came out of the kiln last week... Talk about synchronicity!! How wonderful to be afforded this great opportunity to make use of the tremendous natural resources available to us here right in our own great city Pittsburgh.

When we're finished with this project, we'll still have a few more of these beautiful specimens available for consideration for a future project or two... maybe there's an opportunity waiting for you... We'll just have to wait and see!

The courting Bench

2009-06-18T01:34:00.017-04:00

I Got it Finished!!

My submission for the Pittsburgh Technology Council's 15 Minutes Gallery 2009 Annual Art& Technology exhibition was accepted as were fellow Urban Tree Forge Artisans Jennifer Bechak and Robert Bishop. Congratulations everyone!! I submitted 3 different pieces for consideration and they chose the one of the three I had least completed… requiring the most effort to present.

It has been a mad dash to complete this sculpture in time for the opening of the exhibition this Thursday June 18, 2009. With many late nights, and the aid of some awesome friends like Jason Boone and Nate Lucas we have

“The Courting Bench”

A beautiful piece of sycamore from the Smithfield East End Cemetery complimented with a few select pieces of Allegheny Cemetery elm… and an apple bottom to round out the bottom in the back… of course.

We finally delivered the bench this past Monday afternoon.

Please join us this Thursday evening for the opening at the 15 minutes Gallery. Visit the gallery website for more information on this event and directions for getting there.

If you are not able to check out the exhibit for the opening the show will be available for viewing through August I do believe. Please stop in and take a look at some tremendous Pittsburgh artists!

2009-05-13T00:04:00.014-04:00

New Opportunities

From Brookline

Indiana Township

Wilkinsburg Borough

We received a call from our friend Reid Crosby about this ash tree being cut down in the Brookline area of our city.. . When we arrived the Mcnulty brothers, Ryan and Kevin of McNulty Landscaping were busy working with Tim the tree man to remove this wonderful ash tree.
We are going to be losing many of these wonderful trees in the future because of the emerald ash borer. It's sad to see these wonderful trees leaving our forest. Considering the possibilities for using these now is going to be our challenge. These particular ash logs would make about 900 square feet of some super tough flooring, it's the same material used for great baseball bats, and tool handles... This would also make for some amazingly beautiful furnishings as we found when we opened this regal beauty. We are seeking opportunities to utilize this material somewhere in our great city. If you have a project you think may be appropriate for these logs please let us know.

Just today we received a call from Wayne the crane operator about this tree in Indiana Township. We haven't been to see her yet, but she sure is big and beautiful.
If this amazing tree is still sound, there are some beautiful opportunities to get creative with this root section. We will know soon enough. If you would be interested in using or creating with this section please
give us a call or drop us a line. Wayne tells us this tree was uprooted and laying across a creek. They had it removed to keep it from blocking the flow of the local creek. The roots are clean and she has been out of the water about a year now... an awesome sculptural possibility!!

We also received a call from our friend Joan King of the Wilkinsburg Shade tree Committee regarding a mulberry tree her landlord was having removed from her yard a couple weeks ago. We jumped on the opportunity to acquire some of the beauty that is the wonderful mulberry wood from our communities. This wood is both beautiful and extremely rot resistant... one of the best available! We've already had a client put dibs on one of these colorful slabs for a garden bench in their back yard. There aren't many of these available so if you're interested you should hurry ... these will not last long.

Urban Art Pittsburgh Style

2009-05-05T08:58:00.036-04:00

In The Studio

We have So much going on in the studio lately as many of the artists in residence here have been busy creating many new and exciting projects!

Jenifer Bechak has been working with our new oxy acetylene torches creating some beautiful bent metal work for a project she has been working to complete.

Olof Berner and James Sichak have been collaborating together for a cool project using some City Wood, salvage wood from industry and some driftwood recovered from our rivers. It's still early on in theis project, but you can see the great flow between these artists already.

Nate Lucas is working on a couple projects here as he works to complete a coffee table for one client, and a set of oars for another client.

James Sichak has been working to create some new jewelry items, preparing for the regional festivals season, and working on Urban Tree Forge projects in addition to his collaboration with Olof Berner.

I have had a couple projects going on myself in the studio. First I started working on a branch section from the Smithfield East end Cemetery sycamore tree and have been working this into what may be deemed my version of Bench 2009.

With my second project, I had another great opportunity to demonstrate with the Children's Museum for two days, and used the time to get things moving forward on the Moon River headboard sculpture after a full year of drying. I am hoping to complete this as 3 Rivers, a sculpture, in time to submit it for consideration for the Pittsburgh Tech Council's June 15 Minute Gallery show... submissions are due in two more days!!! I wonder if this would be considered suitable as public art?
Still lots to do to get this one ready! Better get back to this or I won't have anything to submit regardless of what it is!

Urban Tree harvest

2009-05-01T17:32:00.029-04:00

This...
Is City Wood!!

We spent the past couple weeks getting some of our store of logs milled for upcoming projects we will be workiing on over this summer. We have some amazing large sections and some unusually wonderful grain character showing up in much of our material that is just going to make for some beautiful and unique furnishings and some great millwork.

As you can see, these amazing 4/4 oak slabs are almost 24" across and are in excess of sixteen feet long. We have another similar to this over Nineteen feet long. We have more amazingly rich material that was returned to us from our beautiful city forest as well. We have enough oak here to provide in excess of 5000 square feet of oak hardwood flooring, and more on the way.

We also found some tremendous character. Check out this beautiful crotch material we uncovered in one of our oak logs...

And this great section of walnut is destined to become an awesome top for a buffet, coffee table or even a sculptural wall hinging as it has such tremendous grain character.

The trees from in our city are larger than most forest resources because we strive to keep our trees alive as long as we can, not for a sustained harvest or for logging purposes.

Rich Haviland our friend and sawyer has a little wrestling match here as he works to get one of our city logs onto the mill to be sawn.
With Rich Haviland there to help us load the milled material, we were able to deliver 5000 board feet of hardwoods to the kilns at Ritenour Lumber in just one day this week... What a long day that was! Two full truck loads of slabs and milled lumber for projects within our great city of Pittsburgh!

Our first load contained a whole stack of whole width slabbed oak trees that were cut 2 inches thick and are up to 40 inches wide. Two of these slabs are destined for a local Carnegie Library project and two others for a residential project in the Shadyside section of Pittsburgh. The rest of these amazing slabs are available for consideration for projects. The remainder of the load was all 8/4 (2 inch thick) milled lumber we intend to utilize for the manufacturing on doors and table slabs

Our second load was a tremendous mix of the material we milled with rich Haviland at his saw yard. We have some amazing walnut as well as some oak, maple, and another log of slabbed whole width oak. These slabs are also in excess of 36 inches wide...

Our city trees are just yielding some amazing material for us!! We are so fortunate to be in a position to utilize this often overlooked natural resource here within our community.

We had tho ask Paul and Buck at Ritenour Lumber to hang around a little after closing for us to get our second load to them. They were gracious and accommodating in working with us to help make our project work... Thanks folks!This is one piece of wood, not a pile of logs... interested?

Stay Tuned... There's More Happening!!

Pittsburgh Tree Plantings

2009-04-19T23:32:00.017-04:00

Staking A Claim For
Our Pittsburgh Forest

The past couple weeks my nephew James Sichak and I volunteered with a number of local groups to help reforest our Urban environment with trees to enhance our communities.
We helped the Wilkinsburg Shade Tree Commission relocate 23 trees from a community nursery to homes throughout their neighborhoods a couple weeks ago.

We turned out with a number of community groups including East Liberty Development, and Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest(FPUF) and about a hundred volunteers from various community organizations in the East Liberty section of Pittsburgh to plant trees on East Liberty Boulevard.

Then, this past weekend for Earth Day we joined again with FPUF and this time we worked together with Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, Tree Vitalize, and Friends of The Waterfront . Our gratitude and humble thanks to corporate Sponsor Keen Shoes and the around 300 volunteers helping with planting trees along the South Side Trail bike trail. People were planting trees, perennials and bulbs along sections of the trail. There were over a 115 native trees planted today just along the trail... from river birches to American elms, magnolias to oaks... we planted trees! FPUF had two other plantings coinciding this planting, in the Morningside and Lawrenceville neighborhoods today as well. Awesome work FPUF!!
We had the tremendous opportunity at Urban Tree Forge to work with a a few of our community groups to provide tree stakes for their planting endeavors. This year we decided to take the opportunity to stencil our web address onto our stakes so we can get the word out about our efforts to utilize our local tree removals for projects and people within our urban setting. We were fortunate to be afforded the opportunity to provide tree stakes for Wilkinsburg borough tree plantings, for the Nine Mile Run Watershed Association, and for Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.
Some of our stakes were used for the tree plantings in the Lawrenceville and the Morningside neighborhoods, and for the East Liberty plantings a couple weeks back. Thank you for the opportunity to make a difference in our great city everyone...

March happenings

2009-03-26T22:02:00.027-04:00

What a busy month!!

I just have to start off with the great little mention we got this week in the Pittsburgh's awesome POP City e-magazine in an article about the Childrens Museum's "Exploring Trees" exhibit. We will be back at the Childrens Museum this April 9th and 10th to demonstrate some more possibilities for our urban trees... hope to see you there!

Around the studio

Olof Berner has been busy creating some new pieces, working on some beautiful jewelry ideas from our tree stake off cuts, cutting boards, and some other new offerings for our local marketplace.

Jason Boone has been working on a new sculpture and candlesticks made from our tree stake off cuts we have from Tree Vitalize projects with the Western Pennsylvan ia Conservancy in the Pittsburgh area. It's great to see the tree stake materials getting used for even more new ideas!

Jennifer Bechak has been busy trying out our new Oxy-acetylene torch set back in the metal shop area of the Forge and working on creating some new ideas.

Nate Lucas is working on a coffee table that is a beautiful mix of some reclaimed oak and another wood I'm uncertain of at the moment and inlaid with some pretty ebony pin striping.

I created a sculpture this month myself, "Confused Elegance" for the upcoming Persad auction this May. I created this sculpture from a section of an oak tree from the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh.

We've also been busy acquiring new materials to offer our artists in residence and for our clients. Lumberjack Tree Service dropped off a large section of oak for us from our city's Riverview park, which we will be using partially for some new tables for the new Carnegie Library on the Northside of Pittsburgh. We have also cut into a beautiful section of sycamore tree we recovered from storm damage from our Squirrel Hill neighborhood... and have come away with some beautiful pieces from this tree. We harvested a whole truck load of root burls from an elm tree in the Homewood cemetery that look just amazing. Anybody interested in creating or having something created from one of the beautiful sections of our local trees should give us a call or drop us an email to explore the tremendous possibilities further...

Cemetery Gate Opening

2009-03-15T11:30:00.019-04:00

We had a wonderful turn out for the opening of the Cemetery Gate exhibit at The Clay Place Gallery this past Friday the 13th. Elvira Peake, Owner of The Clay Place, was a wonderful hostess providing us a venue for the exhibit. We had participation from many great artists from the area demonstrating the creative possibilities for considering our Urban trees for reuse within our community.
My thanks and gratitude to all the artists who participated in the event.

The exhibit will be running through the first week of April. So, if you haven't had the opportunity to stop in... there's still time.

Urban Wood from Squirrel Hill Pittsburgh

2009-03-08T00:19:00.021-05:00

New Opportunities

Jason Boone, one of our Urban tree forge resident artists and an architect for Bohlin Cywinski Jackson Architects alerted us to a tree that fell from a wind storm in the Smithfield East end cemetery that looked like it might provide some cool opportunities for us.
We contacted Jeff Magdinec, superintendent for The Historic Homewood Cemetery and The Smithfield East end cemetery. Jeff was gracious and accommodating to our endeavor. Jeff was wonderful in working with us to recover not just the London Plane tree we originally sought, but also a beautiful oak, some of which we cut right on site and some amazing root burls that are just looking like they are going to be some great fun to work with!
When it came time to remove these beautiful trees from among the residents we relied once again on our friend Wayne the Crane Blumling and his amazing prowess with his crane to move with agility through the cemeteries' mature trees without hitting any, then lift these beautiful sections and move them to our facility where we can work on them further.
While Wayne was on site, he helped lift one of the root sections out of the ground so we could take a look for some opportunities to utilize this beautiful root flare section of the tree for some new possibilities. Look at the beautiful red color in this specimen... wow!!Thanks again Wayne, You're awesome!!
Now we have to remove the dirt from the root section so we can get the flare cut into sections we can consider for new opportunities. We need some rain to remove some of that dirt!!

Evaline and An Unfinished Love Story

2009-02-28T08:10:00.021-05:00

Recently I finished a new piece, "Evaline" from S. Evaline st in the Garfield/ Friendship area of Pittsburgh near Penn Ave. This beautiful little table started out heading for the local dump when I happened upon her on my way back from Bartlett Fasteners on Penn Ave. You can view this moving little table full of life and the character of our city at the Fifteen minutes gallery in the Pittsburgh Tech Council lobby.

My other recent project "An unfinished Love Story" a heart shaped section of Goldstrom cherry from the Beechview section of the city, which I carved. The section split while I was working on it and it seemed only appropriate to leave it thus for the time being. This piece was given in an incomplete state...
My sincerest hope and dream is to have the opportunity to complete this piece sometime in the future... and the beautiful love story that accompanies this piece as well. We will have to wait and see for that one...

I am wrapping up work on a new mantle shown previously in the "Unearthed" show. I am pretty excited about how well this piece is responding to being worked. The grain being revealed is beautiful!
I will be showing this in The Clay Place Gallery starting next week... I better Hurry Up!!!! The show will be titled "Cemetery Gates" and we will have work from a number of local artists utilizing material from Allegheny Cemetery showing in the exhibit.
More on this upcoming show in the next couple days... so stay tuned!!

Urban Forest Recycling

2009-02-27T23:04:00.019-05:00

Wilkinsburg trees
Pilot project

This past Wednesday the 25th of February we worked in conjunction with Pittsburgh Lumberjack Tree Service, Inc. and Wilkinsburg borough to recover 4 beautiful London Plane trees along S. Braddock Ave.
Joe Suto from Lumberjack was great to work with and facilitated us getting the logs back to a lot where we can work to reclaim different sections for a variety of projects.
Kelly Frey from WTAE channel four news stopped by with Cathy working the camera to check out the endeavor and capture some footage of Lumberjacks' arborists bringing these beautiful specimens to the ground. Joan King from Wilkinsburg's shade tree commission also stopped to check on progress. Joan is responsible for contacting us originally to discuss the possibilities for working with the borough. Thank you Joan for all your hard work and dedication!!

Now the hard work begins as Urban Tree Forge's challenge is to find homes and opportunities to utilize these bastions of our urban Forest.
We already have a client for whom we can make a base for their dining table from a section, and we have a request for a sideboard cabinet for some as well. These projects will be a great start for these trees, but we need more. Please contact us here at the Urban Tree Forge if you are interested in having something made for you home or office, or if you are interested in a section you would like to work with yourself. These have some tremendous character and would be great for carving or turning as well.

My Cemetery Valentines... Allegheny style

2009-02-21T09:42:00.009-05:00

A busy weekend
for the Forge

We had a great turnout this past Valentines weekend as a number of artisans showed their love for the trees of our urban forest by coming out for this endeavor. We spent the day in Allegheny Cemetery seeking and finding some amazing opportunities. Jonathan Shapiro came out this weekend looking for some fresh material for a new sculpture he wants to work on,Jason Boone and Julie came out to lend a hand and look for his next creative outburst.
Jen Bechak came in search of some interesting tree rings for another cache of Citywood for her series of metal infused furniture.

And Nate Lucas came out to help us with slabbing some beautiful maple slabs for a furniture project a client in another city requested, wanting us to utilize material from back home in Pittsburgh for their new home away from home.
The city trees showed up as well, providing us once again with the the characteristic beauty that are the trees of our beautiful urban forest of Pittsburgh. Thank you so much to the folks of Allegheny Cemetery for giving us the permission for recovering these wonderful pieces that are the legacy of our fair city.

Childrens Museum of Pittsburgh

2009-02-18T23:20:00.009-05:00

I had the wonderful opportunity to demonstrate at the Childrens Museum of Pittsburgh this past Monday in conjunction with the touring exhibition "Exploring Trees Inside and Out". What a great day of playing with all the families, talking about our urban trees, and exploring the possibilities for considering new ideas. The kids just drank up the information and creative possibilities. Artists Randie Snow and Karen Evanchko also have their sculpture "Double helix"

which they created in the Urban Tree Forge Studio, on display in the entrance lobby of the museum. Thank you so much Randie Snow, senior designer with Giant Ideas for working so hard to get us the playfully creative display boards together for this event. Everybody loved the color and enthusiasm of these inviting pieces! Certainly anybody needing branding, illustration and graphic design done should contact Randie with the utmost of confidence for creative branding and original marketing campaigns...
We look forward with great anticipation to our opportunity to work with the Childrens Museum again this April 9th and 10th! Be sure to stop in and check us out. Thanks to Angela Seals with the Children's Museum for providing us this great opportunity to share our endeavor with the families of our wonderful city!!

Citywood and Tree Forge Happenings

2009-02-15T22:36:00.018-05:00

Starting the new year off with a BANG!!!
We went looking for some beautiful wood in our fair city of Pittsburgh in January.. and did we hit it big! We harvested some beautiful maple slabs... and cubes!! in Lawrenceville and on the north side Lumberjack Tree service brothers Ben and Joe have helped us out by providing access to some wonderful oak logs for a local library project... Thanks again guys for supporting your local communities! We delivered some Citywood picture frames to Highmark... Hey, Thanks to Highmark too for supporting local sustainable business!!
Resident artist Jennifer Bechak had a great opening at the Brew House for an installation sculpture made with Citywood, and resident artist Olof Berner has pieces in a gallery in New Castle at the Bottlebrush Gallery and Shop. Check out Olof's blog for more on what he has been doing with Bernerworks, his own company. Great work Olof!!
More coming soon, as we have just been doing so much in the last couple weeks... stay tuned!

UnEarthed Benefit

2008-12-03T14:39:00.003-05:00

We partnered with Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest to put together this wonderful event exhibiting amazing works from local artists around the city and to help “Friends” raise money in support of our urban forest. The event was well attended, raised thousands of dollars for the care and maintenance of our urban forest, and for planting trees in our communities to expand our urban forest canopy.

Urban Tree Forge selected over a dozen artists, that work in a variety of mediums, to assemble an exhibit of works demonstrating the varied and inventive ways we can develop value added products from our urban trees.
We had fabric artists to ceramicists, photographers, and steel fabrication artists, woodworkers, architects and industrial designers. We asked the artists to utilize materials from a single source, felled trees in Allegheny Cemetery and incorporate these materials into their works as they desired. The artists responded with an amazingly creative and diverse range of pieces that really helped to make the event special.

Urban Tree Forge worked with the artists to acquire what materials the artists requested, helping with the slabbing of trees to hauling sections of trees, assisting with the fabrication and realization of the different artist’s visions.
The event came together wonderfully and all the artists involved rose to the occasion, providing us with a diverse and creative environment of beautifully crafted works that were well received. Five of the works sold at the one night fund raising event.
Photographer Joey Kennedy wrote up a nice review on his blog about the Unearthed event with some great images as did Katie Smerick on her Holy Vataha blog Thank you both for your tremendous support!!

The fundraising event was only a one night event though, and we are presently seeking additional venues for the exhibition to continue. If you have information on additional venues or opportunities for this exhibition please let us know.

Promoting and advocating the utilization of our urban forest while working to expand our urban canopy replacing the forest we displace is not only a noble endeavor, it is necessary to our continued existence. Being self-reliant as a community using local trees for our resources is not just sustainable… it provides an opportunity for a negative carbon footprint and supports our local economy

My heartfelt Thanks to all the artists who participated in this event as well as the wonderful people who attended making this event such a great success for our community and Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest.

Art theft

2008-11-29T14:23:00.022-05:00

Art Theft

Stolen Art

Sad news this week as we celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. I had three significant works of art stolen as I delivered them to family in Millcreek, a suburb of Salt Lake City, Utah. I had just driven the works out to family from Pittsburgh, PA with my brother-in-law Doug Belnap... (Thanks Doug!) completing the cross-country trip in just 27 hours, arriving at the home of Steve and Maura Cantwell late Thanksgiving eve. I left the pieces in the vehicle overnight with the intention of unloading first thing in the morning. What we awoke to was a morning of loss and grief as we realized the car had been ransacked of all personal items. Our loss included two end tables/nightstands created exclusively for Maura and Steve Cantwell as well as a sculpture titled "Touched" for the family of my brother, Eric Metzler, who died two years ago.

The loss of "Touched" was the most devastating of the day. After hundreds of hours of work,I was bringing this to our family gathering so that my brothers and sisters could contribute and impart a little of each of themselves to this gift for Eric's family. "Touched" was carved from a section of a birch tree recovered from one of my brothers last jobs as Metz Tree Service before his passing two years ago November 1st. Eric was lost to us when the tree he was climbing fell with him tied into the tree's crown. I helped his sons Josh and Justin clean up some of his open jobs. We were able to complete and recover the birch section from one of these projects. The base of the sculpture starts in six sections representing each of the members of his family and diverges to represent how our actions touch other lives in ways we could never comprehend.

The other two casualties in this ordeal are a pair of original night stand end tables I made for my sister and her husband (Maura and Steve Cantwell). The stands are made from oak and sycamore from Pttsburgh, our hometown. The sycamore is from the Point Park University, where my sister attended, studying dance and theater. The oak tops are from an urban tree, a local white oak crotch. The remainder of the oak was salvaged from a local steel supplier. These pieces are also incomplete as I needed to be able to pack them flat for transport to be assembled when I arrived. The stands were packed as 4 sides, the top, and the floor, all as separate sections. The doors were not hung and the drawer fronts were also not attached to the drawers.

In addition to the irreplaceable sculpture and original end tables I also lost a camera I received as a gift from my dear friend and love of my life, Randie Snow; my collection of CDs; my sleeping bag; and a hand made quilt that "Touched" was wrapped in. I had just received the camera days before my departure... (a Canon A1000IS) upon which were stored the only pictures of the lost pieces in their latest stages of completion. The images here are all of earlier stages of construction of the works.
Local Salt Lake City television station KSL TV was gracious enough to report on our loss and inform viewers of the works in hopes that someone would return them. We give our thanks and gratitude to Sandra Yi for her time and efforts to aid in the recovery of these pieces.

Friends.... and Friends friends

2008-09-01T23:50:00.024-04:00

I was talking with a friend last week, who asked me what I had been up to lately, sooo... I told her about the wonderful opportunity I had received to convert some urban trees into flooring for Friends of the Urban Forest. I told her about their Floor Raiser Drive, which has been established to help them raise the necessary funds needed to install the floor... "Friends" is a great asset to our region, not only are they dedicated to restoring and protecting the urban forest, but they're also inspiring and engaging citizens to maintain, plant and protect trees with their Tree Tender program!!

I then began telling her about Tree Vitalize, and the tree stakes that I was making with Rich Haviland the sawyer... when she interrupted me with a

"nooooooo... What have you been working on...?"

Ohhh, I nodded... "working on"...

So, I started telling her all about a new initiative that I was exploring with Wilkinsburg Borough to help them establish their own municipal tree utilization program...

I mentioned that I was working on possibilities for Allegheny Commons on their restoration project, which includes the removal of over 30 ailing trees, along with a ground breaking for the new Carnegie Library, all in the same neighborhood... and, how we're developing plans to promote awareness and unification between the north side and the local design firms, so that they can see how using their own local resources can be beneficial for the environment and the community...

And, lastly, I started talking about the Cemetery Gates project... how we've been able to gather 10–15 artists together to do a show... and how each artist will be incorporating pieces of wood from the Allegheny Cemetery to demonstrate the range of creative possibilities for using the urban forest materials... I told her that we just received a very nice write up about it in the newest Tech Vibe newsletter...

My friend interrupted, again with "Noooo.... not that... what have you been making, working on, creating... Haven't you been creating anything?"

She continued, "Not that I don't care, but I don't want to know about that other stuff... I want to know about YOU... you know... what are you sculpting?"

Well, I began... the Cemetery Gates project is a sculpture show as well as a part of a fund raising event for Friends of the Urban Forest, so I will also be contributing a sculpture of my own...
I have a table that I'm creating from an arborvitae that I found on Penn Avenue, while looking at properties; Then there's Moon Willow Point... a sculpture and bed, which is currently in the drying stage; there's Touched... a sculpture for my brother's family that will be done any day now; and Trinity... a dogwood from Trinity Cathedral; there's some Ohio river drift wood; and finally, Mr. Appleseed... an apple tree that fell in the Regent Square neighborhood.

After my lengthy story, she said, "Well then, you haven't forgotten to keep creating... that's so wonderful!"

I replied, "We are trying to "create" awareness about the amazing diversity of products that we can create from our urban forest ... I have new trees and materials available all the time... maple, elm, oaks, cedars, and sycamore... all of them crying out to have a future other than a dump site or fireplace. Wouldn't you like a piece of furniture, or perhaps a sculpture, for your home or office?

She smiled, and then said, "Show me some possibilities..."

Urban Trees become .... Urban Trees

2008-07-28T20:20:00.007-04:00

The Spruce is Loose

No More!!

Now playing a supporting role in the epic "Urban Forest of Pittsburgh", the "Spruces of Moon"!
The spruces will be playing the role of "Stakes" this fall In a production being collaborated by the City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania DCNR, Tree Vitalize and Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. "Stakes" role will be supporting 750 new young trees all hoping themselves to play a role in the next generation of the "Urban Forest of Pittsburgh"

Please help our trees become a part of Pittsburgh by making them a part of your next project...

Know Trees... know Life
No Trees ... No Life

Sustainable opportunities

2008-07-14T10:22:00.018-04:00

A Norway Visit

We made a short journey this weekend to meet with John and Barb D. in Natrona Heights to look at a couple trees that have to be removed from their yard. In the family for 3 generations, the required removals has the family saddened for their pending loss. The Urban Tree Forge would be honored to reclaim this beautiful older Norway maple for the gorgeous "City Wood" within for a piece of furniture. This wonderful "Cambridge Norway" has some tremendous character which will provide one of a kind slabs with amazingly unique lines. Certain to be a centerpiece in any home or office.
They also have a tall cedar in the back, the sister to which recently received a critical lightning strike bringing about it's early demise. There aren't too many cedars in our urban forest. This tall slender "Natrona cedar" has a number of possibilities for lumber, shelving, or millwork for any room you would like to have stand out from the crowd. Please consider these trees as possibilities for your next project or in your home.

While I was visiting with John and his family, I had the opportunity to take in the gloriously majestic elm lined Carlisle street in Natrona. This street is a cathedral of one hundred year old elms that invoke a humbling sense of spiritual grace. I highly recommend anyone traveling through the area take a few minutes to stop and behold the awe inspiring beauty that these trees add to their neighborhood. Congratulations to the forestry folks in Natrona for the wonderful care provided to keep these national treasures alive and healthy.

Behold the Majestically spiritual grace of the American Elms that dwell here.

Urban Tree Forge Gives City Trees a Second Life

2008-07-13T14:38:00.025-04:00

NEWS
NEWS!

We've had so much happening in the city the past couple weeks....

For starters we received a wonderful write up in Pop City Media "Urban Tree Forge Gives City Trees a Second Life" concerning our efforts to utilize our urban trees. Pop City writes about so many relevant local happenings... I'm always amazed at all the things going on in our city I wasn't aware were happening. Thanks to Debra Smit for her consideration, and for providing us a voice in our community.

I received a personal mention by Kurt Shaw , the art critic for The Pittsburgh Tribune Review for my sculpture "Becoming Fish" in his review of the Society of Sculptors show at Elan fine Arts gallery in Sewickley. Our thanks to Joan for hosting the SOS show in her venue. The sculpture "Becoming Fish" will be leaving us and moving to a new home in a residence in The Cork Factory along with a recently completed table from an urban tree and industrial salvage woods. See our earlier post "Greensburg White and Ryerson oak" for more on this table.

The Pittsburgh Technology Council hosted the 15 Minutes Gallery exhibit last month. I received an award for my work "The Giving Tree" and my partner, best friend and designer responsible for this blog's existence, Randie Snow won BEST IN SHOW for her assemblage sculpture "Flight of the Imagination". Tech Vibe the online newsletter for the council did a nice write up about Randie in their June newsletter's review of the 15 Minutes gallery show.
Randie is such an amazingly creative and talented artist who has been elemental in developing the marketing presence of The Urban Tree Forge, LLc. She's worked tirelessly for us and we couldn't thank her enough.
Should any of you be seeking creative talent for marketing or advertising that will set your company apart from the crowd, You can reach Randie through Giant Ideas Advertising in Pittsburgh.

Also, I took advantage of an opportunity to give a little Saturday as I joined Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest for a tree maintenance and care day in the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh. The "Friends" have a great Tree Tender course available for people interested in giving to the care of our urban forest. It's a great educational experience worthy of your time and consideration.

Whew!, and there's so much more... stop in soon as we post about some beautiful trees that are going to have to be removed. We sure would like to provide them with an opportunity to live on in our community and our lives.

Walnut

2008-07-09T10:32:00.001-04:00

Walnut week at the Forge

Last week seems to have been walnut week at the Forge as we had two people approach us regarding material they'd like us to find new lives for.
First we had our friend Wayne Blumling of Wayne's Crane Service come to us with an opportunity for a beautiful walnut tree "Noble Walnut" in the Greentree section of town that he would really like us to find a new life for as the owner doesn't want the clean up required for the walnut in their yard any longer. Wayne was instrumental in our acquiring the willow for "Moon Willow Point" and the Moon oak which we hope to be making into flooring for Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest "FPUF" in the next couple weeks. Wayne said he sure would like to see us be able to utilize some of this "Noble Walnut" in a similar fashion as the willow to create a sculptural piece or for furniture in a community nearby. We think it would be awesome to give this wonderful life a new opportunity to be and reveal its splendor and beauty in a creative way.... ..

Our second opportunity came from our friends Vicky and Jerry from Wilson and McCracken in Lawrenceville.
They have a stack of 4-6 walnut slabs 3" to 4" thick and from 16"-19" wide they would like me to find a new home for.
These wonderful slabs have been air drying for twenty years and the color is magnificently rich, well beyond anything any picture could ever show.
Walnut is a wood that is affected by the way it is dried. Unlike kiln drying, air drying allows the heartwood to retain it rich purple hues which make for such wonderful character in a piece of furniture.
Slabs 3" and 4" thick are so hard to come by... having them air dried for so long provides us with such beautiful and stable material.... It would be so exciting to get to create something from these.
Please let us know if you have any projects or considerations for these wonderful opportunities available within our community.
We'll make you a deal:
You find us projects for these, and we will plant trees in our community to replace these and keep our urban forest strong and abundant with vibrant life... preserving their future and ours!!!

Know trees... Know life.
No trees... No life.

Reclaimed wood available!! Murtland oak and Beech street basswood

2008-06-15T10:29:00.017-04:00

Hey folks,
Some new trees have become available to us... Let's give them a new life!!
I had the opportunity to meet with the wonderful homeowners Tom and Bea of Point Breeze who were sad to learn their 70- 80 year old oak in front of their home must be removed because of disease.
This majestic ol' tree would certainly make a beautiful conference table or...... ? At 32" in diameter and 20 feet to the bottom branch there are certainly a tremendous number of options for this beauty to find another life in a project or home in our wonderful city of Pittsburgh. Thank you to Joel Keelen of Keelen Brothers Tree Service for the heads up on this Opportunity.
Give us a call if you have a project you feel this wonderful tree would be suited for.

We were given 6 logs of "Beech street basswood" from the North side neighborhood "The Mexican War Streets" this past week by our good friend Matt Grebner of Magnificent Manufacturing. Thanks Matt!!
This poor Linden was gilded around the root crown and it cut off circulation between the roots and the top of the tree. The tree was uprooted during a recent storm and Matt had the great insight to call us before these became more waste in our landfills.
These sections would be great for carving some unique and interesting sculptural pieces. The section with the roots attached has a variety of rocks and bricks included... this will be just amazing with a little imagination!! Perhaps a carver or turner would have an interest for a project of their own.
We would certainly be honored for the opportunity to create a commission from these cool pieces of our urban forest.
Please let us know if you have a home or project for these wonderful pieces of our wonderful city, or a commission you would be like the Urban Tree Forge to create for you.
Thanks for checking in with us.
John

Happenings: Think Global Act Local!!

2008-06-04T23:03:00.013-04:00

Some of the other happenings in the past month or so keeping us on our toes:
We were fortunate for the opportunity to volunteer with some local organizations like Friends Of the Pittsburgh urban forest planting and pruning trees ; with Tree Vitalize we got to volunteer for the initial planting of trees for the year in the Pittsburgh region. We also had the good fortune to volunteer with the American Institute of Architects on a home remodel with Rebuilding together Pittsburgh, and Tedco Construction . Thanks to all the other volunteers and the companies who so selflessly donated their time and funding for us to have these opportunities to help in our community. Pittsburgh ROCKS!
We also would like to welcome to "Studio" at the Urban Tree Forge; Olof Berner, an industrial designer and Jennifer Bechak a ceramics instructor and artist... Let's Create!!! We still have room for YOU!
Oh Yeah, I have a few sculptures showing around town this month: I have a piece in a S ociety of Sculptors show in the Elan Gallery in Sewickley and a few pieces in an opening this week @ 15 Minutes Gallery Oh, and I got accepted into the Craftsmens Guild of Pittsburgh... Whew...is that all...??
Next blog: new sculptures and new materials available!!

Greensburg White & Ryerson Oak

2008-06-01T23:46:00.011-04:00

Well, I said this past month was a little busy...

Another urban project in progress:

We are fortunate to have a wonderful client who requested a dining table for a move into The Cork Factory apartments.
Downsizing from a beautiful home to apartment living can be a little daunting. We're building a unique table to do our part to ease the transition to the smaller space and help make this a unique and special home for our client.

We started with some beautiful white oak we received from a Greensburg residence tree removal and dried by our good friend Reid Crosby... Nate Lucas turned oak timbers my friend Lee Spell provided us from Ryerson Steel's Carnegie facility refuse into a solid foundation for our Greensburg White oak tops.

We get to help a client, recycle from industrial refuse, utilize
our urban forest natural resources, and we get to create!!
It's a good day to work with urban trees....
Now, let's go plant some trees!!!!!!!!

Please keep an eye on our blog as we will be having more on this great project soon!!

Moon River for Moon Willow

2008-05-30T09:01:00.004-04:00

Oh My Gosh!!... I've been a month without an update!!!
So sorry to all of you! Well, Things have indeed been very busy and there is much happening. I will update you all in the days to come. For now though, an update on "Moon Willow Point".
We moved the pieces for the bed back to the shop and they were just too heavy to be functional. We slimmed the headboard down, laid out the three rivers for the headboard and started roughing out the rivers the islands, and the point...
We still have issues with weight and the overall size of the posts necessary to support the headboard. We may have to consider an alternative. Perhaps a wall hung headboard, we'll see. This is beginning to take shape as a beautiful work! Very exciting!

The spruce is loose

2008-04-25T10:37:00.005-04:00

Just a heads up to everyone, We have a potential to acquire 9 Norway spruce trees 2-3' in diameter an 60 to 80' tall. Anyone with a future project that would have an interest in utilizing these please let us know. We could make some pretty significant decorative timbers from this, wall paneling, flooring,?????????
Lets get creative!
Please help us find a home for this material before it becomes landfill
Thank you!

A quick note

2008-04-23T01:52:00.003-04:00

Hey everyone,
We came across about 800 or 900 board feet of 4/4 material from Peters Township. We have a mix of oak, cherry, elm, and locust. Now there's an interesting looking floor!!? Anyone have any projects for this please let us know. Just came out of the kiln this week and ready to be used.
As always, first come...

Peakes Peeks

2008-04-23T01:19:00.005-04:00

A base for a local sculptor's work is a pleasure and an honor for Urban Tree Forge... as we are asked to help with and collaborate on a piece with Elvira Peake from The Clay Place. We went on a hunt for a selection of possibilities for our wonderful friend then roughed out a couple to choose from. Then it's on to "Baking Day" as we turn up the heat on any critters that may have taken up residency in our piece. Soon we hope to be showing at the Elan Fine Arts Gallery in Sewickley when we show together with more of our friends from the Society of Sculptors.
Keep an eye out for more progress as we develop this further....

Moon Willow moving

2008-04-23T00:39:00.005-04:00

Hey everyone, thanks for checking in.

Yesterday we milled and then moved Moon Willow to the Urban Tree Forge for fabrication. Lots of heavy lifting! I can hardly wait to get a forklift for the shop, and our jib crane installed... will make some of this less challenging... I hope.

Check the first picture as we prepare to slab our willow with an Alaska mill... That's a 5 foot bar on the Stihl sitting on the back of the truck. We needed it to be able to span the "Y" of our headboard. Then we decided to test the limits of the truck, not to mention the tolerance of our friend officer "Ed" over in Sewickley as we loaded the headboard onto the truck for delivery to the Urban Tree Forge. Wayne Blumling has been great to work with and ever patient as we utilized his yard for the first stages of this project. Thanks again Wayne!

Tomorrow we'll be on Washington Blvd... laying out the pieces for the bed and commencing with the fun part... making this come together...

red oak white oak maple and more

2008-04-18T08:52:00.006-04:00

Does anyone want a hardwood floor? This week has been pretty busy... we milled the oaks and a soft maple with Rich Haviland's sawmill service. He was wonderful to work with, but he sure throws around lots of saw dust. Look at the pile in front of the mill in the first picture. That was on the second log. We did 3 more after this. We had slabs over 16" wide!

Moon Willow Point:

2008-04-13T17:22:00.016-04:00

Moon Willow Point... closer to reality today!!
Hey everyone,
Spent our Saturday afternoon with Wayne's Crane service getting some urban forest logs ready for a local sawyer, Rich Haviland to come mill them for us... We have 5 logs of oak from two trees for a potential flooring project and the willow is destined to become a bed with a sculptural headboard representing Pittsburgh's 3 rivers and point.
The great thing is between the oaks and the willow I should have enough revenue to plant at least 6 trees, maybe 8. Hopefully 2 street trees and the remainder in our parks or greenways.

In the morning I went to a local tree planting event as a tree tender volunteer representing Friends of the Pittsburgh urban Forest... The event was a Tree vitalize planting in conjunction with the Mt Washington CDC from what I understand.
Alas,... I soon learned the planting was to be Sunday and not Saturday. I spent a good hour or more looking before I found anyone. I found 2 members of the CDC getting mulch dropped off @ the site and learned I was a day early.
Since I wasn't able to be of service to these folks this day, I took a walk back into the scenic byway park and planted some seeds of my own:
I planted 6 oak acorns, 4 beechnuts, and a horse chestnut. I wanted some of these planted as a little something in remembrance of my brother Eric for his birthday. Happy Birthday Eric!!
I noticed our woods are in some dire straights!! I saw vines growing up many of the trees and I can see they cause much stress in our local forest. Many of the trees prevalent in our woods also seem to be of a very limited range of species. I think perhaps many species had been harvested in our city's younger days and have not recovered.... I sure hope that I can contribute to the recovery efforts...
More to come people, please stay tuned!!

everybody wants a log!

2008-04-11T19:59:00.007-04:00

sycamore maple, sycamore oak...
Everybody wants a log!

Urban Tree Forge got to spend a couple days in Allegheny Cemetery this week working to recover some hardwood from our urban forest. We'd sure like to keep this material from becoming landfill.
Anybody need a table? A sculpture? A chair or a bed?
I also got some pieces for our sculptor friend Elvire Peake from The Clay Place to choose from for one of her sculptures... should become a nice collaborative effort and we'll be honored to be of assistance to such a wonderful Pittsburgh artist.
In addition I individually submitted some works for consideration for acceptance to the Craftmans Guild of Pittsburgh.... and as of Wednesday of this week... I Was Accepted!! Woooh!! Hooo!!

WOW! I have a blog...

2008-04-06T23:05:00.003-04:00

Welcome to my blog, world....
thanks for stopping by!
Please check in often to see what's new as I begin this endeavor to recover our urban trees and expand our urban forest... should be interesting.

What a great weekend! I worked with Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest on Saturday, and we planted 15 trees. Today, I took a trip over to the the Frick museum, and ended up collecting seeds from the grounds...fifty beech tree seeds and a few for the European horse chestnut. And since it was so nice out, I then stopped in Frick Park and planted 5 of the beech and a cemetery oak acorn I had.

Well, that's it for now....I have a busy week ahead of me, so let's see how I do keeping this up-to-date!