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 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!!

Art theft

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.

Urban Trees become .... Urban Trees

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