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

Sustainable opportunities

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

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

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

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!!

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 Society 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

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!!