New artisans at UTF

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...

Urban Art Pittsburgh Style

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

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!!

Moon River for Moon Willow

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!

Peakes Peeks

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....