Know Your Sawdust and Woodchips...

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Brooklyn's Biggest Tree Gets a Second Life

When a massive European Elm tree in Prospect Park died in late 2015, the NYC Parks Department asked RE-CO BKLYN to mill it into lumber and make furniture from it.  Most of NYC’s felled trees get chipped and sent to a landfill that is often hundreds of miles away. Turning this material into lumber and furniture cuts down on the environmental burden of disposal and stimulates the local economy.

 The century and a half old tree was located near a footpath at the intersection of Coney Island and Caton Ave. It was planted circa 1870, shortly after construction on the park began. Over the course of the tree’s life it grew beyond 7 feet in diameter and more than 75 feet in height.
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My Boy Scout!

My First Time at the Monday Carving Session by Bill Russo

May Competition 2016 by B. Russo

Woodburning! .... (a short story)

Bill Tries Pyromania 

While Carving by Bill Russo

Mel the Carver told me that he would give me a few

pointers about wood burning at the Monday session. He was
great at it and I asked him if he could show me how it was
done.










Mel was here when I arrived, wood burner already hot
and the smell of smoking basswood was in the air. He was
adding hair to a chimpanzee carving. These are of a gorilla.
I settled into my spot, took out the bear and began to
pencil in some general lines that flowed in the directions that
I thought looked proper.
















“Lines too short..make them a little longer…good…good. “
said Jerry.

SUMMER TIME - PEACH PIT CARVING

HISTORICAL  BACKDROP

Peach pits have been carved for several centuries: Tim Hallman of the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, California contends that the craft originated in China where the Peach is a symbol of longevity(1);  Wang Xu-De, in a summary about the history of peach pit carving in China, notes "Peach stone carving has a long history in China and is first recorded in the middle of the Song dynasty [960 -1279]"(2);  it also is recorded that AHandiwork of pit carving was all the rage for a time in the Ming [1368-1644] and Qing [1644 -1911] Dynasties.@(3);  [and]  folklore exhibits of the Sichuan University Museum in south-central China include Asome fantastically small carvings including a miniature boat and crew carved from a peach pit.@(4)

More recently: Michigan State University lists "Peach Pit Carving" on its "... topical file subjects" relating to the Michigan Traditional Arts Program.   Articles have been published about peach pit carving in both China and America in, for example, the periodical Chip Chats.  Carvings have been displayed at art and craft festivals.  And, a few web sites describe and/or illustrate relatively recently carved peach pits.

So far as the place peach pit carving has in the world of arts and crafts, the following rather apt statement seems to "say it all" – i.e., for all, save a few professional, peach pit carvers whom I know or have read about:  "This unusual art form seems not to be attached to any specific region, ethnic group, or occupation.  One simply occasionally finds folks who like to sit down and carve tiny figures and baskets out of peach pits...@(5).

PITS and TOOLS

Peach pits, sometimes referred to as peach stones or even peach seeds, comprise the cores of the widely eaten fruit called peach. 

A Wood Carvers Poem

A Wood Carvers Poem

I Saw This Piece Of Wood One Day

When I Picked It Up It Seemed To Say

There’s Something Hiding Inside Of Me

Remove Some Chips And You Will See

I Looked To See What I Might Find

And Soon An Image Came To Mind

My Task Was Now To Set It Free

What’s Hidden In This Piece Of Tree

With Loving Care Each Cut Was Made

Wood Peeled Off With A Sharp Edged Blade

And As Each Chip Fell To The Floor

I Could See The Object More And More

By One Final Cut It Was Set Free

My Work Of Art For All To See

This Piece Of Wood Which Would Just Lay

And See It’s Body Soon Decay

Was Now Transformed And Given Life

With Careful Cuts Of Gouge And Knife

By Carving Something From This Tree

It Lives Again Because Of Me

By Gnomes Hollow Wood Working