G-20 Opportunity

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!

Urban Wood from Squirrel Hill Pittsburgh

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!!

My Cemetery Valentines... Allegheny style

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.

The spruce is loose

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!

Moon Willow Point:

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!

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!!