Screengrab courtesy of www.coastecotimber.com
I’m writing a piece for the Vancouver Sun about a very cool show all about wood. It’s at the Rocky Mountaineer Station (near the Home Depot down the road from Main & Terminal.)
The Sun article won’t be published until later this week but I wanted to urge you to see the show before it closes at 4 pm this afternoon.
It features products from Coast Eco Timber, a company that literally lives by the “waste not” idea when it comes to wood.
The products encompass driftwood/beach salvage, forest deadfall, recycled old beams and floorboards, even tiny bits of wood from the scrap traps on the Fraser River.
They’ve been taken by artisans, usually from BC, and turned into amazing furniture. For instance, there’s a huge curved vertical slice of black walnut — it must weigh 300 pounds — that’s been turned into a desk fit for a CEO, or a dogwood trunk salvaged from the yard of an elderly West Vancouver woman. It’s been sliced into two foot lengths and polished. Plant stand or drink holder? I’m not sure, but there’s the most interesting rot pattern in the centre. (They’re in the screengrab up top, second from the left in the uppermost row.)
I also liked the table pieced together from 4″ x 4″ chunks of fir and stained dark; CEO Alana Husby pointed out how some of the chunks were clearly from second growth trees because of how widely spaced the rings were, while others had very dense ring patterns. (Second growth trees have less competition for sunlight/resources, so they shoot up and outwards; original trees are a little squished by their brethren.)
The wood can be used architecturally, for guitars, for utensils, pretty much anything of which the human mind can conceive.
Make sure you head to the back to check out the amazing flooring and veneer being made from wood salvaged in Panama. It’s a long intriguing story, but it involves Teddy Roosevelt, the Panama Canal, and hydraulic underwater saws.
I had the pleasure of experiencing this exquisite exhibition; magical. Coast Eco Timber is one of the most original and creative companies I have encountered. This is only the beginning of what will be an illustrious journey to the top. I tip my hat to you and eagerly await the next chapter of CET.
Thanks for commenting, JH. The creativity displayed in the show was pretty darn impressive, and Alana is a hoot. Now I need to find a way to get some of that Panamanian flooring into my dream house.
I could not believe the passion, insight, and creativity that went into this collection. Everyone I spoke with at the event was amazed at how unusual and beautiful the pieces were and so carefully laid out. I loved the outdoor Japanese lamps and the broken heart tables and the slabs of red cedar…wood lover heaven! Alana should be very proud and I hope to see much more.