North Bennington Art Park

This past weekend Glenn and I had the pleasure of visiting the North Bennington Art Park, a wonderful event organized by our dear friend Fred X Brownstein. Glenn was asked to perform a bronze demonstration where he cast trilobites to benefit the Norshaft Little League. Nothing like a little molten bronze to add a bit of heat to the day!

The Mobile Foundry

Heating the "tree 'o trilobites" shell

Hoisting up the melted bronze

And now to pour

After filling the shell the the leftover is poured into an ingot

Final blast of fire as the crucible is returned to the furnace

Cooling off the metal

After breaking off the shell -Voila!

The crowd is impressed! Let's see if the'll want to purchase trilobites for the local Little League.

Final question and answer time. Good crowd - fun time!

If you would like to know more about the North Bennington Art Park, see the list of artist's who showed and see how much we raised for the Little League click here.

Of Wooden Artifacts

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree - Joyce Kilmer

We all know those lines - a distant memory of words we heard or had to recite long ago. Last year hubby and I had the privilage of visiting the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest while camping on Lake Santeetlah in Western North Carolina. Neither of us had ever heard of it and were awe-struck by what we found. We walked into an ancient, old growth forest of giant trees, many over 400 years old and reaching over 100 feet tall and 20 feet in circumference. This was a sanctuary protected and preserved by the Widerness Act (sometimes we really get it right) where no motorized vehicle or power driven equiptment are allowed and if a tree falls and blocks a trail the forest service is required to use only hand powered logging saws to clear it.

Such love, appreciation and respect for the tree!

Glenn and one of the ancients

I'd like to share with you a sampling of artists and craftspeople I've discovered on Etsy who share that connection with trees. Through their art, they not only pay homage to our family of trees but also leave behind the wooden artifacts of our age.

Olive Wood Table

Box Elder Burl

Rustic Orb

This Is My Body