Reclaiming Art - Woodworking in Modern America

The more I travel back through the venues of my life the more I realize and understand more about sustainability & my own unique journey. I have been an avid, if sometimes unconventional woodworker and creator for sometime now. When I was in highschool I began using scraps, to create a sort of antique looking vintage style frame. Using scraps made sense, they are not only readily available in any woodshop but they also require a degree of creativity to make them into something interesting instead of using virgin wood pieces.

This piece was a large walnut backing with maple pieces on top and bottom, mahagony on the right side and two strips used as inlays on both the right and left sides.

I used paper clips for the twisted metal on the far right.

This is another frame with a solid walnut backing. Zebra wood an exotic hardwood imported from West Africa was attached on the upper right corner and redheart, another exotic hardwood, attached at the lower right corner. The top of the piece was shaped using various files.

This frame is held up by two protruding maple posts that come up through the walnut backing. None of the frames I made have stain or polyurethane. Tung oil would have been a powerful possibility as a natural and environmentally friendly alternative to polyurethane but was unavailable at the shop in DC. Because no stains or finishes were used it is important to note that these are the natural colors of the wood.


This frame uses purple heart triangle in the lower left. A slice of red heart. I used a drill on the right side to emulate wear. The picture is of Larry, the shop manager and one of the student’s children inside the Covenant House Washington’s woodshop.


This frame was held up with just a single piece of Baltic birch plywood. Purple heart is an exotic wood with mechanical properties of the wood are reported to lie somewhere between those of Greenheart and Oak. It is reported to have exceptional tolerance for shock loading.

This frame uses large block pieces of Zebra wood for grounding. A thin strip of purple heart runs across the bottom of the picture. Reclaimed corks from wine bottles and a post of red heart were used on either side of the frame to stabilize and prop up the drawing.

All of these frames were constructed in DC inside the Covenant House Washington woodshop. The BlogSpot is here. http://theartisans.blogspot.com/