Living on the Peninsula, Winter 2011 by Sequim Gazette

WINTER 2011

ARTISTRY IN WOODWORKING Pg. 11

Carving a totem pole

Pg. 16

West End Woodworkers

Pg. 21

Carving out a good life

Pg. 28

Creations in Wood

Pg. 30

Going with the grain

Carving everything from LIVING ON THE PENINSULA A to Z| WINTER | DECEMBER 2011 Pg. 34

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DEPARTMENTS 8 Winter Recreation

Gardening 32 Good Our versatile western red cedar

Food & Spirits 15 Pasta Primavera

50 Events Calendar

Through Port Townsend's past, darkly

Heart & Soul Anam Cara: The Friend of Your Soul

52 The Living End

Working wood for love & profit

54 Now & Then

Photographic journal

SPOTLIGHT 11 Carving a Totem Pole: It's a tall order

28 Creations in Wood: Uniquely Salman

16 West End Woodworkers

30 Going With the Grain

19 Domestic Renaissance

34 Carving Everything from A to Z 37 Collective Joy 41 The PLUS is Center-Stage 44 Sculpting Found Wood into Art 46 Good Wood!

21 Carving Out a Good Life 26 River Unleashed

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | WINTER | DECEMBER 2011

On the cover: A view of the now-defunct Lake Aldwell, originally created by the Elwha dam. The dam is under demolition to restore the river. See story on Page 26. Photo by Jay Cline

Contributors Patricia Morrison Coate

is the award-winning editor of Living on the Peninsula magazine. She has been a journalist since 1989 and earned degrees in Spanish from Eastern Michigan University and Indiana University. Coate joined the Sequim Gazette in 2004 as its special sections editor and can be reached at patc@sequimgazette.com.

Jay Cline

started as an apprentice printer for a Midwest newspaper in the mid-1970s and has worked for newspapers on the North Olympic Peninsula over 30 years. He is now the computer technician/graphic designer for the Sequim Gazette and plays with cameras in his spare time.

Chris Cook is the editor and pub-

lisher of the Forks Forum and a resident of Forks. He is the author of “The Kauai Movie Book” and other regional bestsellers in Hawaii. His book “Twilight Territory: A Fan’s Guide to Forks and LaPush” was published in May 2009. Cook is a graduate of the University of Hawaii.

Karen Frank

received her master’s degree in transforming spirituality from Seattle University. She is a writer and spiritual director in Port Townsend. Reach her at karenanddana1@q.com or www.yourlifeassacredstory.org.

Beverly Hoffman writes a gar-

dening column for the Sequim Gazette that appears once a month. She is an enthusiastic longtime gardener. She can be reached via e-mail at columnists@sequim gazette.com.

Elizabeth Kelly

has lived on the Olympic Peninsula nearly a dozen years. She has worked for three newspapers as reporter and freelance writer. She also worked as a technical writer. She has traveled to all seven continents and continues to be curious about the world around her.

Jerry Kraft

is a playwright, poet and theater critic. He reviews Seattle theater productions for SeattleActor.com and the national theater website AisleSay. com. In addition to his writing and photography, he teaches memoir writing at the YMCA in Port Angeles where he lives with his wife, Bridgett Bell Kraft, and their daughters McKenna and Luxie.

Kelly McKillip has a bachelor’s

degree in biology from Marylhurst College in Oregon and a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Hayward State University in California. She works as a nurse at Olympic Medical Center and volunteers at The Dungeness Valley Health and Wellness Clinic.

was an awardwinning reporter and hiking columnist with the Sequim Gazette from 2003-2006. He has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of WisconsinMadison and is the editor and general manager of the Vidette in Montesano.

Jessica Plumb

is a filmmaker and writer living on the Olympic Peninsula, who has been published in the Boston Globe and Christian Science Monitor. She is producing and editing a film on the removal of the Elwha River dams in collaboration with cinematographer John Gussman.

Mary Powell is the former editor

of the Sequim Gazette. She worked in the newspaper industry for nearly 20 years, was an education reporter and also the editor for the Columbia Basin Herald in Moses Lake. She has won several journalism awards, most for editorial writing. Now semi-retired, she volunteers for several local organizations and enjoys an occasional freelance assignment.

Cathy Clark

226 Adams St., Port Townsend, WA 98368 360-385-2900 Fred Obee: fobee@ptleader.com

Leif Nesheim

Design:

Reneé Mizar

is the communications coordinator and executive assistant of the Museum & Arts Center in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley. Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, she has a bachelor’s degree in communication (print journalism) from Washington State University. She enjoys photography and genealogy, including assisting others in their family history research, in her free time.

earned a bachelor’s degree in art from Calvin College, which led to a career in advertising design. She has been an award-winning graphic designer for the Sequim Gazette since 2004. She enjoys traveling and reading history in her free time. Clark can be reached at cclark@sequimgazette.com.

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Winter RECREATION

Through Port Townsend’s past, darkly Story and photos by Leif Nesheim

ind whipped across steel gray water at the Marrowstone Point lighthouse. The roaring gale slung rain nearly horizontally as it raced westward across Admiralty Bay in cold fury. We paused just long enough to don rain gear and lean into the wind atop windswept beach logs before driving back up the road to the heart of Fort Flagler State Park. The wind continued its fierce assault on the former fort. Gray-painted wooden buildings of the past barracks and officers quarters braved the weather in orderly rows. Today, the buildings are part of the park’s Environmental Learning Center, which may be rented by large groups, or are individual vacation homes and the park’s headquarters. A decommissioned gun stood guard nearby while a trio of deer browsed and took shelter behind a small shed. There didn’t seem to be a place to park and hike here so my wife, Mandy, drove through the park to find a place to begin our hike. We parked near campgrounds by the boat launch on the park’s northeast side. The campgrounds are closed for the winter but the park is open for day use. Port Townsend was visible to the northwest across the water and the cranes on Indian Island Navy base to the south could be seen from the boat launch areas. Our trail was the Bluff Trail. After a mild and brief climb, it leveled out with brief glimpses of the water and campground area below. The path was wide, the width of the single-lane road. The surrounding trees tamed the wind and caught the drizzle, creating a pleasant hiking environment. With my rain pants, fleece and hat, I was soon overly hot. Thank goodness for zippers. We paused at a former searchlight post. The fort formed part of a triangle of batteries that also included Fort Worden and Fort Casey, guarding the nautical entrance to Puget Sound. Construction on Fort Flagler began in 1897 and continued in spurts until the fort closed in 1953. It became a state park in 1955. Flagler is kind of like Fort Worden’s little sibling: It has many of the same types of activities, trails and scenery but lacks the crowds and special activities that more popular and closer Fort Worden offers. While we looked across the water toward Port Townsend from the searchlight position, an American bald eagle soared past at eye level less than 20 feet away. It was a breathtakingly close encounter. There are a number of trails that connect from the Bluff Trail to the Wilderness Trail that would complete shorter versions of the loop hike we planned but we continued along our chosen trail to explore more of the fort ruins. At left, from top: 1. Logs and waves accent the natural beauty of the beach at the Marrowstone Point lighthouse. 2. A decommissioned gun battery stands guard near the entrance to Fort Flagler. 3. Deer browse and find what shelter they can as wind whips in from the east.

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | WINTER | DECEMBER 2011

Above, left: Those seeking a unique vacation experience may rent lodgings in the buildings of Fort Flagler. At right: The abandoned batteries of Fort Flagler offer unique exploration possibilities. Hikers may wander through them on their own or take advantage of guided tours in May.

We came upon a gun battery, climbed the narrow stone stairs to the grassy top and poked into the open underground storage and ammunition rooms. The stone and stairs combined with the curved gun emplacements vaguely reminded me of an M.C. Escher painting and we wondered why the stairs were so narrow and small. We headed along the trail to another battery before backtracking to a trail I thought would lead back toward the buildings by the park entrance. I’d consulted the map in the guidebook but it wasn’t very detailed and I had left it in the car so I wasn’t sure exactly where we were headed. The path was pretty neat though. Tall fir trees sprung up on either side. The rain left all the plants glistening green in the damp. The road was covered with grass but had the faint outline of former heavy use, symbolically mirroring the decay of autumn and nature’s ability to reclaim its own. Nature once again exclaimed its power as we approached the fort buildings and left the shelter of the trees. We closed zippers, cinched down hoods and hats and staggered sideways into the fierce wind.

Where my face was bare, the rain bit and stung my cheeks with cold fury. I angled the brim of my hat to absorb most of the punishment. We trudged toward the park headquarters; I was unsure where the return trail began and preferred not to hike on the park road. We found a map in a kiosk by the visitors center and backtracked a short distance to the trail, which heads west between a couple of the buildings back into the safety of the trees. We passed one of the group campsites before finding the trail that paralleled the road and would soon join the Wilderness Trail we sought. This trail was narrower than the wide track of the Bluff Trail and after about a mile or so, we climbed atop another battery but didn’t tarry to explore, preferring instead to finish our hike. Once we found the Wilderness Trail, we took it. It meandered through a thick fir and cedar forest. Ferns lined the ground and bare-branched bushes were ripe with bright red berries. Sooner than we thought, we were back at the car and headed on our way. We didn’t see a single other hiker our entire trip, though there were a few people at the ELC and several surfers braved the waters near the

lighthouse to test the wind-whipped waves. Fort Flagler offers many of the splendors of Fort Worden but with fewer to share them with; it’s truly a gem off the beaten path and worth the extra drive.

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Carving a totem pole:

It’s a tall order

This magnificent totem pole stands tall in front of the Jamestown Family Health Clinic. It was designed by Dale Faulstich and carved by Faulstich and other carvers working with him. Photo courtesy of Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe

Story and photos by Mary Powell

t’s mid-morning in the somewhat nondescript carving shed tucked behind the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe’s administration buildings off U.S. Highway 101 in Blyn. There is the sense of creativity in the shed. Carvers Dale Faulstich and Bud Turner carry on easy conversation over a constant chipping sound that suggests the log the two are carving eventually will become a unique and majestic totem pole. Occasionally they stop to study the design sketches drawn by Faulstich. The telephone rings; Kogi Naidoo, who works over at one of the administration buildings, stops by for some good-natured banter with Faulstich; apprentice Dusty Humphries has a question for Turner and it looks as though the day will be a busy one. But, says Turner, “We are having fun here.” Fun, of course is a relative word. For most of us, carving a totem pole that stands anywhere from 5 to 36 feet or more would be a tall order. Not so much for Faulstich, who, at 61, has been carving totem poles for as long as he can remember. Not only totem poles, but also a variety of ceremonial objects, as well. Faulstich has been working with the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe for 25 years and in fact, much of the commissioned artwork in and around the Administration Building and Tribal Center comes from the long-standing relationship between the two. Back in the shed, Faulstich and Turner continue their work on the pole-in-the-making. While most of the artistry that comes from the carving shed is commissioned for the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, the one they are carving is going to a private individual. And speaking of the carving shed, this isn’t what most would think of when describing a shed. First, the extra high ceiling allows for the extra tall totem poles. The shed is quite spacious, its walls covered with tribal artwork, with totem poles in various sizes and stages of completion resting on work tables throughout the building. “We get lots of visitors through here, especially in tourist season,” Faulstich says, adding the shed is open to visitors year-round. Below: Dale Faulstich, right, and Bud Turner carve a 12-foot totem pole ordered by a private individual. Totem poles primarily are carved for the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe in Sequim.

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | WINTER | DECEMBER 2011

This colorful killer whale is in front of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal Center on U.S. Highway 101 near Sequim. Photo courtesy of Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe.

Master carver extraordinaire Faulstich is soft spoken and has a calm demeanor, but when talk turns to the totem poles he and others have designed and carved, he is animated and shows off projects under way. For instance, on one side of the shed are two poles situated side by side. Cut from top to bottom, the 21-foot poles will be put together when erected in the near future at the Blyn fire station. As with nearly all totem poles, the final design tells a story. “This pole,” says Faulstich, as he walks around the recently completed fire station to-

Carver Dale Faulstich shows how measurements once were taken on totem poles being carved. Today, laser technology makes the task much simpler and more accurate.

tem pole he designed, “tells the story of how fire came to be used by mankind.” A non-native working in a native tradition, Faulstich is incredibly knowledgeable about the cultural traditions. He thoroughly researches tribal art, customs and folk stories before embarking on any commissioned project. According to one Jamestown employee who preferred not to be named, Faulstich takes long walks every morning and uses what he sees in nature as part of his artistry. Consequently, he enjoys a unique relationship with the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe of Blyn. Faulstich grew up in Missouri, but began calling the Pacific Northwest his home in 1972. In 1973, he moved to Sequim where he opened an art galler y in Dungeness. Prior to his full-time carving days, Faulstich earned his living as a commercial artist. When asked how it was he became interested in carving traditional objects, and in particular,

totem poles, he says it “just kind of happened.” It began as hobby, he contends. “I started going to museums, looking at old stuff and trying it.” He goes on to say he spent “thousands of hours” experimenting and many of his efforts ended up in the fireplace. Fortunately, along the way he became very good at what he does. While the totem poles along Highway 101 at the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal Center and the 7 Cedars Casino are the most visible to visitors, Faulstich is an extraordinary artist using a variety of mediums. He has created masks, steamed bentwood boxes, rattles, drums, wall panels and other ceremonial objects. He shows and sells his creations at several galleries, including the high-end Stonington Gallery at Pioneer Square in Seattle. Faulstich and his wife, Heather, live in Sequim, not far from the Jamestown Tribal Center. They have two children, a son who manages a resort in Tasmania and a daughter who is a graduate student at the University of Arizona.

“You never know if you did it right until you stand it up.” — Master carver Dale Faulstich on designing and carving a totem pole. In the beginning All wood products have one thing in common — trees. In the case of the Jamestown S’Klallam totem poles, they were once western red cedar found in the Hoh Rain Forest on the western side of the Olympic Peninsula. The harvested logs range in age from 500 to 900 years. After the trees are logged, the mill owners contact Faulstich, who then goes to the site to inspect the logs and buy what is available. He looks for the older trees, with as few knots as possible, as these are the easiest to carve. Logs

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | WINTER | DECEMBER 2011

A bov

e left ols are : One half of ving to ich. r a used c e d a a pole that to mak Faulst : Handm is destined e a tote er Dale er. Right t v for the Blyn fire n r e a C m pole. T c l a b r i r e station sits in the carving shed at the Jamestown S’Klallam T he adze is ys mast used for shapin these,” sa ll e s t ’ g the wood and is similar to n s e o d ages-old tools. “Home Depot

not used immediately are kept at a logging shed in Port Orchard. However, a log that will become a totem pole is carved as soon after it’s cut as possible. “The greener the wood, the easier it is to carve,” Turner explains. The height of the tree and the subsequent log is the deciding factor when selecting for an individual pole, since a totem pole is carved from a single log.

A totem pole is born Each totem pole tells a story. Or, as Ron Allen, Jamestown S’Klallam tribal chairman, writes in the book “Totem Poles of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe: The Art of Dale Faulstich,” “Our Salish culture has a long history of using totem poles for

many reasons, including commemorating family and community history, and the folklore of our religious, cultural and traditional beliefs.” Indeed, totem poles are an ancient tradition of the Indian tribes of the Pacific Northwest Coast. The meanings of the designs on totem poles are as varied as the cultures that make them. In turn, each culture has rules and customs regarding the designs represented on the poles. Before Faulstich begins carving a totem pole for the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, he submits concept drawings to the tribal council. Upon approval, Faulstich and other carvers begin their work. Depending on the size of the project, a finished totem pole can take from six weeks to six months. The price tag? Between $2,500 and $5,000 per linear foot, again depending on the size and complexity of the design. That might explain why most of us don’t have a totem pole as part of our landscape design. However, for those who do want a totem pole without the prohibitive price tag, Faulstich has crafted a 4½-foot pole cast in concrete. Unpainted, they are available for $275. “You can put these in your backyard since the big ones are pricey,” Faulstich says. Back to the big poles. Once a log arrives at the carving shed, work begins. The log is measured and the design sketches are adjusted to match the

configuration of the log. Adzes are used to carve the log. These are handmade tools fashioned after an ancient design and are similar to early tribal carvers’ tools. “Home Depot doesn’t sell these,” Faulstich says, holding up an adze with a steel blade. For the detail work, the carvers use a variety of chisels and carving knives. Finally, the pole is painted in traditional colors. “You never know if you did it right until you stand it up,” Faulstich admits. “And if you didn’t do it right, you don’t tell anyone.” All in all, totem pole carving is intricate, delicate, timeconsuming work, but the end result is stunning — a gift to all who spend time perusing the brilliant artistry Faulstich has created. Once the pole is hoisted into its permanent setting, there is a dedication ceremony that may include dancing, singing and a blessing by tribal members. It’s not everyday a budding artist decides to carve totem poles. It wasn’t a clear decision for Faulstich, either. As he explained, it just happened. But, his gift for understanding tribal art, customs and folks stories made it a natural decision to design and carve the outstanding totem poles at the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal Center. And aren’t we glad he did. Some material for this story is taken from the book, “Totem Poles of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe: The Art of Dale Faulstich.”

Carving a totem pole involves plenty of close-up, intricate work, as Bud Turner demonstrates. Turner has worked with master carver Dale Faulstich for nearly 20 years, five of those at the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal Center.

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | WINTER | DECEMBER 2011

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FOOD Spirits

Pasta Primavera

The following recipe is a creation of Chef Shawn Royaltey of Islander Pizza, Pasta & Grill at 380 E. Washington St. in Sequim. The Islander is a unique casual dining restaurant and lounge serving house-made pizza, pastas, sandwiches, hamburgers, seafood and steaks. The diverse menu offers items for the entire family. The Islander’s full menu is served from 11 a.m.-9 p.m. SundayThursday and 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Follow the Islander on Facebook for special events such as its annual luau, crab feed and beer and wine tastings.

Ingredients: Kosher salt & fresh ground pepper to taste Pinch of oregano 2 ounces sweet onion, julienned 2 ounces green bell pepper, julienned 2 ounces roasted red bell pepper, julienned 2 ounces zucchini, julienned 2 ounces carrot, julienned 2-3 button mushrooms, sliced 1 ounce extra virgin olive oil 1 ounce white wine 1 teaspoon chopped garlic 2-3 basil leaves, chopped 1 ounce shredded parmesan cheese 14 ounces penne pasta, cooked al dente In a medium saucepan, add extra virgin olive oil and chopped garlic. Simmer on low heat, sweat the garlic for 30 seconds, add peppers and onions, raise temperature rature to medium high. Once the onions become translucent around the edges, add mushrooms, zucchini, carrots, basil, salt, pepper, epper oregano and white wine. Toss vegetables in pan to evenly coat with olive oil and white wine. Cook vegetables approximately 5 minutes. Then add penne pasta and simmer for approximately 2 minutes. Top with shredded parmesan cheese and enjoy! Serves two or three.

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Story and photos by Chris Cook

from logging with a broken foot or other injury, woodworkers can work the burls while healing proceeds, helping to provide much-needed cash while the logger is out of the woods. The woodworking often takes place in the ubiquitous shed found alongside many West End homes. Farwest Woodshop woodworker and owner Stu Gray rents a roomy space in a light industrial section of the former Rosmond Brothers mill site located just north of Forks at the intersection of state Highway 110 and U.S. Highway 101. The Rosmond mill now is home to 110 Business Park, a barn-red collection of businesses owned and run by Bill and Kitty Sperry of Forks. Here Gray builds furniture and chests. Gray also opened Decor d’ Forks on this past Memorial Day weekend as a gallery featuring household decorating items. The shop is back a bit from the 110 Business Park entrance, adjacent to the Old Mill Archery Range at 110 Business Park. His collection of items made by local woodworkers lines the walls and pieces sit atop the shop’s wood floor and are set out on wooden display tables at Decor d’ Forks. The collection provides a good overview of local woodworking talent. A stand-alone cabinet made by Lifelong Forks resident Larry Palmer takes a break from painting Forks woodworker Larry Palmer com- several kitchen pieces he handmade in his home garage. Palmer is retired following a career as a forester with Rayonier and bines a functional aesthetic that captures knows well the woods of the West End. the pioneer touches still found in homes where others see it as firewood. Some have an affinity for and businesses on the West End some working with wood, either you have it or you don’t. Almost 130 years after a handful of Civil War veterans everybody has a garage or workshop. It’s an avocation for and their families settled the isolated West End most; very few are making a living at it.” town. The lack of commercial furniture, or even industrial When asked, Gray offers insights into West wood pallet makers, on the West End is due to the extreme End style. rainfall, Gray says. “It’s like stepping back in time in many ways,” “Th ere are no value-added products, no furniture makGray says during a break at his home decor shop, ers … because of the climate — it’s hard to build things calling the West End wood works very much that won’t keep their shape when shipped out,” he says. Americana in heritage. Pointing to wooden “Historically, Forks is a logging town, all they had to do kitchen spoons, all painstakingly decorated with was ship it out.” hand-wrought wooden hardwood hearts, he From his own woodworking experience, Gray has gives their style the moniker “Country Kitchen.” become familiar with the nuances of indigenous West Tole work, folksy painting on wood and steel, is End woods. another popular West End crafts product. “Alder is a nice hardwood, it’s harder than evergreens and “Their experience affects what they make,” has no pitch pocket, but not as hard as oak or maple,” Gray Gray says. “There are ties to logging, it’s a diexplains. “Alder is relatively easy to work with. It has fine chotomy (among members of the West End comgrain; you can do fine detail stuff with it and it’s plentiful.” Stu Gray stands alongside his wares inside his Decor ’d Forks home munity) — they like to make things out of wood decor gallery at 110 Business Park in Forks. All the woodworking items pictured were created on the West End.

ood, both timber and the lumber produced from timber, underlies the lifestyle and history of the West End of the Olympic Peninsula. Local lumber mills, shake and shingle mills, and felled logs sent straight off for export and to domestic markets are the bread and butter of the West End economy. West End craftsmen also find inspiration in their abundance of wood, turning castoff sections of the tall red cedars, hemlocks, spruce and fir trees into furniture, bowls, picture frames and a myriad of folksy wood crafts. Even sections of gray-barked alders, a wood whose texture comes right at the divide between hardwood and softwood and a tree once seen of little value, now are being turned into fine furniture. Woodworking sometimes is a retirement pastime or sidelight to another job. Some loggers who have discovered they enjoy and can profit from woodworking skills collect castoff burls, that if left on a long log, would keep the log from lying flat on a logging truck trailer. If laid up

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Gray draws his supply of alder from his backyard on his five-acre homestead and from a neighbor’s yard using a portable mill. A local home builder-woodworker kiln dries the wood for him, which takes about two to three weeks. It’s then ready to work with. The kiln drying removes “the worry … it won’t keep changing shape.” Open-air drying wood takes about a year for each inch of thickness, he added. “Red cedar is expensive and hard to come by, scarce, mostly found in protected areas,” Gray says. “Some carvers use old stumps, but that doesn’t work for boards.” Vine maple is another wood used on the West End. The vine maple is visually striking when found encased in a tight covering of moss in the Olympic rain forest. The impetus for opening Decor d’ Forks was the lack of a showcase for the talented woodworkers on the West End. Gray says he’d see the woodcraft items he now sells year-round in his shop only once or twice a year, on display at a Christmas sale or a summertime open-air market. Gray recommended a stop at the Salmonberry Gallery, a cooperative West End gallery of handcrafted items located on South Forks Avenue in downtown Forks, just down the street from the town’s barber shop and insurance office. He pointed out that he focuses on home decor items, while Salmonberry highlights local handmade crafts creations. At Salmonberry, well-known Forks jewelry maker Tena Gagnon was behind the counter on a rainy Saturday in November. Gagnon pointed out the unique wooden bowls, plates and an inlaid table handcrafted by Jerry Sullivan though his The Beaver Woodworks studio. Her work is found on the crafts sales website www.etsy.com. Sullivan’s skill can be seen on his www.thebeaver woodworks.com website. A description of his work is given on the website home page: “Many of my products are made with local woods, indigenous to the rain forest of the Pacific Northwest. I frequently utilize recycled or salvaged old growth timber, an exclusive resource from this area.” Again, as is common on the West End, the Beaverbased woodworker takes woods available locally, often the scraps of commercial lumber and timber operations, and turns them into things of woodworking beauty. Gagnon also pointed out the heritage behind a “Twilight” vampire saga-related item she creates and sells locally at Salmonberry and at Leppell’s Flowers & Gifts’ Twilight Central on Spartan Avenue in Forks. The “Twilight” object is a brick from the circa 1925 Forks High School building that was demolished over the past year to make way for a new 21st-century school addition. The bricks are held by a wooden holder that is handmade from the old school’s wooden gym floor. About a block north of Salmonberry is Anna Matsche’s Native to Twilight shop (www.nativetotwilight.com). She is the great-granddaughter of West End legend Minnie Peterson, the West End woman who ran horseback packing trips into the Olympic Mountains for 50 years. Matsche sells the works of artist and illustrator Richard Workman, a Bitterroot Mountains of Montana transplant

LLIVING LIVI IVING VII NG N OONN TH THE H E PE PENINSULA E NINS N I NS NSUULA U LA | W WINTER I NTER NTTER | DDECEMBER E C EM EC EM MBBBEE R 20 2 0 11 2011

Above: Vern Hestand uses a Bosch grinder to begin finish work on a totem pole he roughed out using a chain saw in his workshop located adjacent to his home in Forks. Below, right: Work by Jerry Sullivan of The Beaver Woodworks in Beaver. Sullivan is a member of the Salmonberry Gallery, an artisans' guild cooperative located in downtown Forks.

to the West End. Workman specializes in wood burnings, using pieces of local woods as his canvas. He sometimes comes out of the West End woods to buy imported birch and other hardwoods from Edensaw Woods in Port Townsend, he says. The Forks woodburning artist uses a simple $9.99 wood burning tool picked up at Walmart, some No. 2 and No. 7 lead pencils to do the initial sketching of his works, an eraser for special rubbing effects and a bit of sandpaper to create his ‘Currier & Ivesish” drawings. Artfully burning historical and Northwest landscape images into the surface of his untreated wooden canvases provides a sepia tone look, reminiscent of the Old West of the mid- and late-1800s. “Collectors buy these for the old-fashioned qualities that these art works exhibit,” Workman says. “I started in 2003 when I won the Western Montana Fair for fine art with a wood burning of a grizzly and a cub on a log. In 2005, at the Asotin County Fair in Southeast Washington, I won the sweepstakes award for fine art with a rendition of Lewis & Clark.” In addition to these woodworkers, there is more to discover on the West End. South of Forks about eight miles is chain saw carver Dennis Chastain’s Den’s Wood Den gallery located in a large shed set right off Highway 101. The Three Sisters Gallery features many interesting wood crafts pieces. Woodcarvers from the Quileute Tribe and the Makah Nation create museumquality masks, whistles and other woodcrafts pieces that can be found at shops on their reservations, as well as in West End galleries. Skilled craftsmen working in the Olympic Corrections Center wood shop created these cedar planter boxes for the Forks Beautification Committee.

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LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | WINTER | DECEMBER 2011

Story and photos by Fred Obee

enny Jo Clothing’s small retail shop is filled with whimsy. Brightly colored elf shoes with turned up toes for children line one shelf. Little daisy cutouts find their way onto stylish wool hats. Fingerless gloves adorned with stars, and skirts featuring leaf designs take up other shelves and hangars. “My grandma taught me how to do all this stuff,” says Jenny Jo Allen, the proprietor, as she gives a tour of her retail shop and work space in the Port Townsend business park. Beyond the cozy retail space a big workroom contains a few tables, two sewing machines, an industrial serger, a button box and piles and piles of fabric, but there are no bolts of cloth. The one thing all her unique fashions have in common is they all had previous lives as other garments, were worn and discarded. She gets all her material for “refashioning” from Salvation Army and Goodwill thrift stores. She finds the good stuff among the garments that do not qualify for resale and deftly cuts the clothes into usable pieces, which then become the skirts, gloves, baby clothes, shirts and blouses. And business is picking up. “This year, I’ve had a huge growth year, and as I’ve grown personally, my business has grown as well,” Allen said. One reason for the surge was an offer from an interested investor and business mentor, who gave Allen some money to study her own business. That was an eye opener. With time to step back and analyze her business, she found efficiencies. She did research and developed a growth plan. The path her business was on came into focus and she became smarter about how she was approaching her goals. That investor eventually decided to try something different — he was looking for

an investment where he could have hands-on involvement — but the experience of studying her business remains a watershed moment. “I’ve been able to think how I can do business differently. I’m much more in control of where I’m spending money.” One area where she needs to get more efficient is the way she gathers material. It is time consuming and expensive to glean from the thrift store throwaways, and it turns out there is an option. Clothes that cannot be sold at thrift stores commonly are packed into containers all over the United States and shipped to sorting houses in New York, Los Angeles and Florida. People like Allen can place orders with the sorting houses and ask for particular kinds of garments. It’s much more efficient, but the minimum purchase is 5,000 pounds. That’s a big investment and, when it comes, will be a big leap forward for her business. Like many retailers, the holiday season goes at a breakneck pace for Allen. Not only do sales pick up as people look for gifts, Allen has to sew what she sells. In addition to her own retail shop, several shops in Port Townsend and a few stores in Seattle and even California sell her clothes. Also on her agenda are classes and workshops. That’s an aspect of her business that is particularly enjoyable, as she does her part to help train the new participants in the “Domestic Renaissance.” The poor economy and the need to be less dependent on others is fueling that movement, Allen said. People are growing gardens, learning to can vegetables and taking up needle and thread to repair their clothes. “We need to learn how to do some of these things again,” Allen said. “We’ve really become very dependent.” She also offers free Community Repair sessions, where she teaches people basic hand-sewing skills. Check out her website at www,jennyjoclothing.com, e-mail madroneberries@yahoo.com or call 360-643-1712 to get information on current workshops and Community Repair sessions. Allen says she likes where her business is positioned right now. The general movement toward living more lightly on the Earth fits her work and

her personal ethic. She loves creating fashions that are fun, stylish and functional. She takes real pride in seeing someone wearing one of her skirts three years after the sale. It means the style is still fitting in and she did a good job in constructing it. “I’m all about functionality. That makes me happy,” Allen says. The movement to throw away less and conserve more puts Jenny Jo Clothing in just the right place at just the right time and Allen says she is doing what she loves while making a contribution to the cause. “I feel I’m definitely doing my part,” she said.

Jenny Jo Allen holds up a pair of baby pants she quickly fashioned from discarded clothes. Her business is succeeding, in part, she says, because of a renewed interest in reusing discarded items.

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | WINTER | DECEMBER 2011

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LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | WINTER | DECEMBER 2011

Story and photos by Elizabeth Kelly From a single piece of wood, Gordon Day can fashion a lifelike duck or fish that you would swear could paddle or swim in water. His avocation as a carver began a short 18 years ago but has taken him far afield, and he now is called upon to judge wood carving exhibits in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Canada. Day said he originally was a pen and ink and oil paint artist, who started carving in 1993 because, “My wife didn’t like the smell of oil paints in our fifth-wheel trailer when we took trips.” He explained that he always took some of his artwork along when they traveled. “She found a starter carving kit and gave it to me,” he mused, “and at first, I wasn’t much interested in it, but then I got to loving it.” Day said that now he just likes to carve, although he hopes to get back to his oil painting someday. “I like doing things with my hands,” he said. “When we moved here to Sequim in 1994, I didn’t realize there were so

Above: A red-tailed hawk sculpture in-process. Below: a finished carving of a common Merganser.

many carvers here,” Day remembered. He built uiilltt hhis u uilt is is woodworking shop (which has a second story orryy ffor oorr his oil paintings, when he can get back to that) att)) and an nd d began with cabinet making. “I haven’t done aan n ooi oilil painting in 20 years,” he said, “but I do all myy own own wn painting on my sculptures.” The vibrantly colored olloored red re fowl and fish he has displayed attest to the aartistic rtiissttiic rt intricacies of his fine painting skills. Once he found out how much he loved carving, arv rving, rvin ing, in g, Day sought out classes from expert teachers too learn lea earn rn how to carve different animals. “You have to rreally ealllly ea know the anatomy of each animal you carve, vee,,” he he said. And he learned from the very best. Award-winning bird carver Floyd Scholz, z, who who wh has written several books on woodcarving aand nd iiss nd known for his attention to detail, holds seminars min inar ars at his Vermont Raptor Academy in Bennington, ngttoon, ng Vt. He teaches with live birds, Day said. “Scholz hoollz is is the world’s best carver of eagles, owls, falcons nss and and nd all raptors,” Day said. “He is so knowledgeable, geab eaable, blee,, bl ess.” He es. He it takes 10 days to attend his classes. attended Scholz’s academy in 1997. 9997. 7. The year before, Day was able abl blee to bl to take two classes from Jim Sprankle, nklle nk le, a Sanibel Island, Fla., waterfowl wood woood sculptor, who came to Westport ortt ttoo teach. “Sprankle is good on any kind kin ki nd of nd of waterfowl,” Day said, adding that he he h has aass written several books, including hiss bestbes esttselling book, “How to Carve Waterfowl. rfooow rf wl.l.” wl Sprankle is a past three-term president off tthe he he ugee on on J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge Sanibel Island. Den D nnis niis “I learned about mammal carving from Dennis min nent ne nt Dreschler,” Day said. Dreschler is a pre-eminent udio ioo in in woodcarver who owns the Tidewater Art Studio Victoria, British Columbia. worllddDay also has been schooled by worldyssert errt class fish carving expert John D Dysert e derra l who offers classes in Federal xter,, of of Way, and by Jerry Poindexter, ialtyy is is Spokane, whose specialty ing.. “I “I songbird carving. n wanted to be aan car arvrvv all-around carvne day day da er, so that one saai aid. d I could judge,” hee said. classsess Day explained that these classes nd his hiss often are expensive and he and ave wife, Donna, usually have too sa save uld d be be up in order to attend. This could

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | WINTER | DECEMBER 2011

Gordon Day in his shop where he holds wood carving classes.

one reason that the classes in his fully equipped shop in Sequim are all free except for the materials and personal equipment. “We had a one-day beginning carving class here for knives, chisels and gouges with Jeff Eiller from Bremerton and nearly 50 people signed up. We had to split the class and had 22 one day and more than that the next,” Day said. When they are using power tools, they take only 10 at the most, he added. The expert carvers can come to Day’s shop, teach a class and stay with the Days. “It doesn’t cost them anything,” he said. Beginning and intermediate classes usually are held for five days, he added. The best wood for power carving is called tupelo wood, which is most often found in swamps, Day said. “For mammals, I use basswood (from the American linden tree) and I also work with black walnut, maple and mahogany. Because some woods can give off toxic fumes, Day said he always checks the toxicity of a piece of wood that a carver might Close-up bring in. of northern shoveler “The shop cane head. is designed for

woodcarving,” Day said. “All I require is that a carver have his or her own leather apron, mask and portable dust collector with fans,” he said. “It can get pretty noisy in the shop with 10 power tools and 10 dust collectors going at the same time,” Day observed, “and even with the dust collectors, it gets very dusty.” Day said he doesn’t sell his completed works of art because it’s “too hard to put a price on them,” but he often gives them away to nonprofit organizations to help with their fundraising. He especially likes to help the Northwest Raptor and Wildlife Center in Sequim, whose director Jaye Moore helps rehabilitate injured and abandoned animals. He has donated carvings to churches, garden clubs, fishing clubs and to Sequim Little League baseball. “I like to help out with anything that has to do with kids,” he said. The sponsors and organizers of various carving exhibits, shows and competitions now call upon Day and ask him to be one of their judges. He thoroughly enjoys judging and never enters a competition when he is a judge. Anyone interested in learning about woodcarving can visit www.woodartisans.net or call Ann Grover, treasurer of the Pacific Northwest Wood Artisans, at 681-7885. The group meets at the Port Angeles Senior Center at 10 a.m. on the second Thursday of each month. Day said that his dream is to one day compete in a worldwide competition like the one in Ocean City, Md. “It is expensive,” he said, and added that it will take several years before he finishes the red-tailed hawk he currently is working on with the goal of entering it in Maryland. “I’d like to do that just one time,” he wished aloud.

Day uses power tools to carve his wood sculptures.

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HEART Soul

Anam Cara The Friend of Your Soul

By Karen Frank

hen I was a child I read everything that I could get my hands on, including my dad’s American Legion magazine, which was not scintillating, I can tell you. If it had print on paper, I read it. Although my parents had little money, my mom ordered the 12-volume My Book House set from a doorto-door salesman when she was pregnant. She started reading to me in my crib so I came by it naturally.

However, my mother later decided that I spent a little too much time reading. Often, when the sun was shining, my mother would suggest I put down my book and go outside and play. This didn’t always interest me. Most of the children in the neighborhood were much younger than I. When I was with them I felt like the mother or a teacher. My best friend was Marcia Mason. We played games – indoor games like Authors and outdoor games like tag or Simon Says. In the summer the whole gang of us would get together and play baseball or cops and robbers. We’d go swimming or ride our bicycles. The winter, though, was a time of anticipation. Besides looking forward to the holidays, we looked forward to snowstorms and the lake freezing over so we could ice skate. Those of you who ski will laugh, but I actually got a pair of skis one year. This was in Illinois, where the biggest ski slope in the state was probably smaller than the curve going down Sims Way into the heart of Port Townsend. I didn’t use my skis much, but my skates got quite a workout. And one of my favorite memories is of my father going down the hill right by our house on a saucer sled and rolling head over heels when he hit the bottom. Then there’s the old movie of me doing a face plant into the snow in our backyard when my father told us to run through the snow to create an action feature. Marcia and I were good buddies. We met when I first moved to Lake-in-the-Hills and our mothers got acquainted. Shy as we both were, we bonded quickly and stayed friends for years. We were also soul friends. We didn’t sit around and talk about spirituality or religion, we lived in eternity. We wandered through fields imbued with magic. We lay on our backs in the summer grass and watched our kites fly high into the

heavens. As I got older, my friends and I grew wordier, more inclined to talk about philosophy and religion than to experience the sacred in our lives. I learned about transubstantiation from Peggy, a Catholic friend who attended parochial school. When I was 17, I read about Judaism and spoke to a rabbi about converting. After college I had another friend named Peggy who had studied religion in the Middle East. We read Tillich and Buber and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. From her, I learned a smidgen about Islam. Then I wandered for many years without that spiritual grounding, without those special friends who shared the same longings for depth and meaning. I met my beloved friend Kate in a reading group. I had put up a flier at Peninsula College in Port Angeles looking for women who wanted to be part of a book group. I invited people to my house. When Kate showed up, things were awkward at first. At least 25 years older than the rest of us, it seemed as though we had little in common. Yet it was Kate who became my Anam Cara, my soul friend, for two decades. She always was running out ahead of me, studying women’s spirituality and Native American spirituality before I knew anything about it. She learned reiki and shamanic practices and energy work. She introduced me to Tibetan singing bowls, toning and chanting. Whenever I had lunch with her or went to her house, she’d ask me what I’d been reading. I’d feel slightly guilty if I only had been reading mystery novels. She stacked books about religion and spirituality on her coffee table, next to her chair and on the floor. Her book shelves eventually extended all around her living room and dining room.

LIVINGON ONTHE THEPENINSULA PENINSULA || WINTER WINTER | DECEMBER 2011 LIVING

When I struggled, I ran to Kate. As soon as I entered her presence, I was at peace, I was home. Her life became a dance with the Great Mystery. All of us live and work, struggle and rejoice in that Great Mystery. It helps to have friends walking the path with us. It is rare to find home with a person other than your spouse. Anam Cara is another form of wedding, a joining of two spirits in deep communion. Your soul friend sees you as you really are: all that chaotic mixture of human being. She, or he, is the friend of your soul’s awakening and growth. In Celtic spirituality, Anam Cara is a relationship that never ends, even with separation or death. I cannot say that I ever consciously sought such relationships, but I went to places where the potential to touch spirit to spirit increased. Now I’m in a group studying prayer. We talk about what the word “prayer” means and which prayers are meaningful to us. In trust, we open our hearts to each other to share that most tender, personal element: our souls. You’re not going to find an Anam Cara in a bar.

You’re not likely to find one at political forums. Look somewhere else. It is a treasure without price to have a partner who shares the flow of the sacred through your lives. You are doubly blessed if you have friends who, in the words of John O’Donohue, are a “ visible sign of invisible grace,” people who liberate you to be your truest, wild self. Now is the time for renewal. I bless you with the openness and trust to make yourself available to grace. I bless you with the recognition of the Anam Cara in your life. I bless you with the willingness to risk seeing the beauty and light within you and within those who take your hand in love. Karen Frank is a writer, photographer and spiritual director living in Port Townsend. Feel free to write her at karenanddana1@q. com with questions or comments.

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The river runs freely through the lower dam on Sept. 28, 2011. Photo by Jessica Plumb

e v r i U R n Story by Jessica Plumb • Photos by John Gussman

didn’t expect a river to make me cry, but this river was running free for the first time in a century. I was on a field trip with my daughter’s elementary school to visit the Elwha River restoration project. By chance, our group arrived shortly after the lower Elwha Dam had been breached. Water roared through an opening created by a giant jackhammer and a flock of bulldozers, sending clouds of mist into the September sunshine. I dammed my emotions quickly, but the scene was riveting. The remaining ramparts shuddered with each blow from the jackhammer, which dissolved cement pillars into clouds of dust. Viewers crowded the small overlook, despite its remote location. Whether they were for, or against, the largest dam removal in the United States, I don’t know. Heavy machinery and the torrent of water drowned out conversation. The last time I stood on an overlook above a dam project, watching giant trucks move like insects below, I was on the Yangtze River in China. The final pieces of the Three Gorges Dam were being put in place. With a different group of young people, I speculated about the future of this river and the many people around it. I still think about the residents we encountered on the Yangtze

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River before the reservoir began to fill, living beneath red lines that marked the future inundation level in each town. Business went on below those red lines as though nothing would change, even though the first phase of dam construction was complete. The project was so big it seemed remote: impossible to stop and too vast to comprehend. Here on the Olympic Peninsula, rivers flow from the heart of Olympic National Park in every direction, like spokes of bicycle wheel, with snow-capped mountains at the center. These are not meandering rivers. They hurtle downhill, dropping thousands of feet in a few miles, and when they approach the sea they still feel like fresh snow. Salmon love these rivers and the Elwha River was known for exceptional salmon runs, until two dams sent its fish elsewhere. I have lived on the Olympic Peninsula for more than a decade, but the fight to remove the two Elwha dams began long before I arrived. When dam construction began on the Elwha, the people with the most to lose were members of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, whose economy and culture revolved around salmon. They

have led the effort to remove the dams since they were built. A hundred years later, with the support of numerous environmental organizations and a handful of politicians, they’ve won. Now I am watching the Elwha River roar back to life. It’s hard to say what is more thrilling: the power of the river itself or the power of a small group of marginalized people, who stuck with this river with the tenacity of salmon themselves. The annual Northwest spectacle of salmon fighting upstream is a lesson in persistence. Watching fish throw themselves against waterfalls again and again, falling and jumping higher still, I marvel at the mysterious resolve encoded in these creatures. The Elwha River is a symbol of determination, human and animal. However, I want to see its new freedom as a symbol of something else: as a shift in the relationship between people and the land that sustains us. That flicker of hope feels naïve, though it’s the narrative that burbles up from the Elwha’s unlikely story. My doubt starts with my own contradictions: I’ve hiked in to visit a decommissioned dam and power station with a laptop, a smart phone, two HD cameras and a backpack full of batteries.

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | WINTER | DECEMBER 2011

The tools of my trade, all fully charged. I left urban life because I fell in love with the rugged mountain landscape that births these rivers. The same rivers power my technology, just as they power much of the Northwest. I wonder if the kids who visited today can learn to be less hungry for electricity than I am or come up with a better way to make it. I wonder how the electricity generated by this relatively small rural dam will be replaced. Our region is defined by the relationship between people and natural resources. On the Olympic Peninsula, environmental history is a subject written in real time, an unfolding story marked by raw wounds, in the communities and the land all around us. On the way home, I learn of the approval of a massive dam in the Amazon rain forest. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a haunting image with this story, a photograph of a tribal leader convulsed in grief. Members of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, now leading the celebration of the Elwha River restoration, surely understand this feeling. I returned to the Elwha Dam site alone. The reservoir had dropped notably in a few hours and cascades thundered as the lake drained. I was overwhelmed by a sense of power unleashed. The power of water. The power of people who love a place. I made a promise to the river: I will come back unburdened by electronic devices. I will bring a notebook and a pen. And here I am. Top: The Elwha River begins to run wild after early demolition in this Oct. 6, 2011 image. Photo by John Gussman Center: A view of the tamed Elwha River. Photo by Jessica Plumb Below: Water churns through the Elwha Dam on Sept. 30, 2010, about a year before demolition on it began. Photo by John Gussman

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | WINTER || DECEMBER DECEMBER2011 2011

Uniquely Salman Story and photos by Kelly McKillip

ed Salman’s life is a lot like his art. He takes what life offers, rethinks and reworks the elements, expands his perspective and with a new vantage point, turns mishaps into opportunities to create something unique and wonderful. Growing up in Kuwait, Salman spent many contented childhood hours drawing and painting in ink and acrylics. At age 17, his stable family life with loving parents, four brothers and a sister suddenly came to an end. Salman and one of his brothers were of the age that involuntary conscription in the Iraqi army was an assured fate. Knowing their country Iraq was on the brink of war with Iran and his two sons likely would not survive the conflict,

Salman’s father sent the boys to live with an aunt in Panorama City, Calif. Three hours after the arranged departure, military personnel came knocking on the family’s door.

Discovering his medium After arriving in the States, Salman spent time in school learning the language and customs of his new country. A year later he joined the U.S. Army with the goal of bettering his life. One day, while serving at Fort Lewis, he found himself camped out and sitting on a moss-covered log. He began to feel a kind of kinship and respect for the wood and, without any external guidance, soon set out to buy wood carving tools. Salman’s habit of sketching, modifying ideas and making notes before he goes to sleep at night, took on a new intensity when he began creating in wood. Artistic ideas and inspirations flow during these hours, sometimes at the expense of a good night’s sleep. One project that repeatedly occupied his reverie was the creation of a stately grandfather clock out of a tree trunk. In 1982, Salman left the Army to re-enter civilian life. When not working his day job, he created and sold many commissioned pieces across the country, including bowls and burl bars, vases, fountains and other objects d’art. He never advertised, relying only on word of mouth from happy patrons.

A changing perspective

Top: Ned Salman poses with the guitar he borrowed from his favorite sculpture, “Ned Zeppelin.” At right: Unique and practical describes the Salmans’ coffee table.

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By 2003, a failed marriage once again had sent Salman on a new course. He traveled to visit his brother, Janan, also an artist, who was showing his work in an art gallery in Ohio. At the gallery Salman met Patricia, a painter and potter who also was leaving an unhappy marriage. The two artists found solace in each other’s company. When Salman asked his wife-to-be if she was willing to move to Washington, she said yes. Their new life brought challenges for the couple, who essentially left most of their worldly possessions behind. They took up residence in a home without furniture or much in the way of creature comforts.

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One day, Salman mentioned his long-held dream of creating a grandfather clock. Despite their limited circumstances, Patricia encouraged him to go for it. Subsequently, a large red cedar tree trunk with a rotten center was delivered to the couple’s driveway, as they had no other workspace. Salman got busy peeling one-half inch strips of bark from the tree as well as relocating three unhappy snakes and a colony of ants. Using a chisel, hand saw, sander and hammer, he painstakingly worked countless hours to reveal a beautiful and unique cabinet for a pendulum clock. Although the stately timepiece has been his most challenging work to date, he loved making it and has since created another, even grander, clock.

Uniquely Salman Salman enjoys working with most species of wood, but prefers using indigenous trees of the Pacific Northwest. He often chooses maple, making jewelry boxes out of burls and bowls from knots. He looks for the phenomena of quilted and birdseye patterns that enhance the beauty of a piece and also employs the echoed symmetry of book-matched cuts. Because of its unique properties and beauty, red cedar remains his favorite wood. Cedar is easy to sand and lends itself well to his signature technique of brushing out the annual rings. Salman allows the natural grain and turn of the wood to dictate his creations, preferring rounded, organic shapes to sharp edges and angles. Mishaps offer a new way of doing things and he always applies what he has learned from working with one piece to improve the next. Upgrading from hand tools to chain saws, planers and electric sanders has made the job faster and easier, but he never uses a table saw and doesn’t apply wood stain to his work, choosing instead to polish out the wood’s natural color. Making a point not to cut down trees, Salman rescues pieces of wood destined for the burn or sawdust piles. He’s grateful for the gift of being able to envision a beautiful object where others only see a rotting stump. He also gleans stainless steel rods, motors and circuit boards for his projects from the discarded machines he encounters in his day job as a copier technician. Uniquely Salman is not only his business name but also a description of his work. Surrealism is a favored style and he

prefers the unexpected such as a flowing, threesided picture frame that cradles a painting rather than holding it captive. He loves a challenge and especially is inspired when someone tells him that the project he has in mind can’t be done. Salman’s favorite piece to date is “Ned Zeppelin” which pays homage to the band he most admires. The work employs hemlock for the guitarist’s body; burl madrona and cedar root for his instrument and brushed out red cedar for the stand-alone guitar. The lighted base is Florida spruce.

Creating a home Two years ago the Salmans found a piece of wooded land in Port Angeles that they loved but was not available to them. Fate had its own plan and eventually through a series of twists and turns, the acreage and a house nestled in the woods became their own. When the couple is not at work, Patricia tends the garden full of the native plants and mosses she loves, while her husband and her son Nick clear the brush and cut up the fallen trees for more projects. Their home is a showroom for dozens of Salman’s wood creations, including a book-matched maple dining room table, lighted shelving, a standing screen with natural edges, bowls, tables and of course, two pendulum clocks. Numerous smaller works of art fill ceiling-high shelves. Practical and unique describes the family coffee table made from a thick slab of red cedar with brushed out annual rings and a mysterious plume of humidifying mist arising from the lighted center. The Salmans plan to have a dedicated studio and showroom someday on their property. Until then, their garage houses the numerous pieces of wood patiently awaiting Salman’s adept hands and imagination. Ned Salman of Uniquely Salman can be reached at 360-775-0439 or by e-mail at khoshteez@yahoo.com.

Clockwise, from top: 1. Burl maple becomes an intricate jewelry box in the adept hands of Ned Salman. 2. This stately grandfather clock was fashioned out of a red cedar trunk. Salman frequently uses maple in his creations. His favorite wood, red cedar, was used in making the grandfather clock. 3. This bowl is fashioned from a knot.

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Tim Lawson talks about the Port Townsend School of Woodworking in the shop where students try out hand tools and learn to craft beautiful objects. Photo by Fred Obee

Going with the grain Port Townsend’s School of Woodworking teaches traditional skills Story by Fred Obee

im Lawson, the executive director of the Port Townsend School of Woodworking, is notoriously softspoken, but talk woodworking and pretty soon he is a torrent of information. Standing between workbenches and sweeping away a stray wood shaving, he looks around the room and says: “I really believe we’re creating one of the next major institutions here in town.” What makes him so sure? One reason is the setting, right in the heart of historical Fort Worden State Park, tucked up against a wooded hill that rises from the fort’s main campus. Classes are held in the fort’s old power plant building. In rooms once filled with boilers, generators and steam pipes, today wooden work benches are arrayed, hand tools are organized on shelves and display cases hold a few antique tools. Adjacent workshops hold the power tools. It is a dream space for a woodshop. The Fort Worden location also provides all the amenities visiting students might need: affordable lodging, food, a stunning natural environment, and, for the woodworker, an envious list of teachers nationally known for their skill and accomplishment.

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Because of the setting, many consider coming to the school a perfect vacation. Lawson says about 15 percent of the school’s students come from British Columbia to spend time at the fort and the school and he has a fair number of professional people from high stress occupations who come back over and over to lose themselves in an activity unlike anything they do at work. Women also are making up a significant percentage of workshop enrollees. Once people experience the place, many come back again and again. “We have a repeat rate of 50 percent,” Lawson says. The school offers a range of workshops. Intensives last 12 weeks, but other workshops go for just a couple of days. Subjects run the gamut from furniture building to Northwest Coast Native American carving. Even the dogs have to observe shop safety at the Port Townsend School of Woodworking. Photo courtesy of Tim Lawson

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | WINTER | DECEMBER 2011

Another plus for the Fort Worden location is that the place is jammed with100-year-old buildings that contain hours and hours of woodworking projects, from new windows to furniture for the rooms. Lawson envisions that someday workshops on historical restoration will become a separate branch of the woodworking school. One building already has been picked out at the fort as a potential workshop and some short-term programs have been conducted as job training opportunities for military veterans. The school also hopes to be involved in the renovation of Building 202, an old dormitory that is scheduled to be restored for use as a college center by Peninsula College and Goddard College. “We really think there’s a deep need to teach the skills for historic preservation,” Lawson said. But whatever the project and whatever they are making, at the heart of the program is teaching fundamental skills used long before the dawn of table saws and belt sanders. With simple hand tools like planes and chisels and using techniques practiced hundreds of years ago, students learn that woodworking is about the interplay between craftsman and material. “When you touch a tool to wood, you learn something,” Lawson said, and that new knowledge should guide the process. “We’re coming at woodworking from that point of view.” Many beginners without a single skill darken the school’s door. But unlike many woodworking schools, students are not required to have their own tools. Every bench has a set. That’s especially helpful for enrollees who still are wondering whether woodworking is something they want to pursue. “It lets you explore whether you want to do it and helps you make more informed decisions about the tools you want to buy,” Lawson said. Three founders guide the school and all are fine woodworkers with different visions and approaches. They are: Lawson, who draws inspiration from winged creatures and their graceful forms in the lecterns and music stands he makes; Jim Tolpin, the author of 12 books on woodworking who has constructed everything from dinghies to gypsy wagons; and John Marckworth, who delights in “one-of-a-kind projects that call for thinking outside the traditional box.” Beyond the founders is a large stable of often nationally known craftspeople from different disciplines, a veritable treasure trove of experience know-how, humor and skill. Lawson said he thinks we need to imagine new ways to approach our lives. Just as people now are gaining a new awareness about the importance of locally grown food, Lawson is a proponent of locally grown wood. Stacked around the woodworking school are milled alder trees and pieces of fir. There’s just something inherently wrong about shipping logs overseas to have it come back as cheap furniture, Lawson says. He believes there is a market for furniture built from local woods and crafted by local craftspeople. You may pay a premium for that kind of product, Lawson says, but sturdy, practical attractive furniture built by local craftspeople should be a bigger part of our everyday lives and our local economies. If ever there was a perfect place to launch such effort, it is the Olympic Peninsula, Lawson said. Working with wood is part of the peninsula’s heritage and he dreams of the day when logs grown here are trucked to local workshops instead of loaded on ships for Asia. “I deeply believe that what will restore this country is to bring manufacturing back to these shores,” he said. “Port Townsend can be a center for trades and crafts. There are a disproportionate number of great craftspeople here.” To learn more about the Port Townsend School of Woodworking, go to ptwoodschool.com, e-mail Lawson at tim@ptwoodschool.com or call 360-344-4455.

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | WINTER | DECEMBER 2011

Students work on their projects in a Japanese woodworking class taught by Dale Brotherton. Photo courtesy of Tim Lawson

Planes stand ready on a sunny shelf inside the school. Beginners don’t need to bring their own tools. Every bench has a set. Photo by Fred Obee

Women make up a good percentage of the enrollees at the Port Townsend School of Woodworking. Photo courtesy of Tim Lawson

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GOOD Gardening

Our versatile western red cedar Story by Beverly Hoffman

y mantle still is decorated for Christmas, draped with boughs of western red cedar (Thuja plicata), pine cones and glittered ribbons. Each year as I decorate for Christmas, my husband brings in a bushel of branches of western red cedar because its flat foliage makes it an ideal greenery. On a bed of branchlets, we place our Nativity set, gorgeous hand-carved pieces we bought years ago in Italy. On our mantle the flat boughs become a fragrant base for glowing candles and spiky cones. My wreath on our front door has western red cedar as its unifying element. The western red cedar is not a true cedar. Cedars are in the Cedrus family. The western red cedar (sometimes written redcedar or hyphenated, red-cedar) is in the cypress (Cupressaceae) family. The mature foliage of the western red cedar is scale-like. On first glance the scales look as though they are a single blade, but after close scrutiny, one can see the scales interlock into a thread. When we take the time to look closely at nature, we can learn so much. An exercise teacher of mine recently went to a retreat and she said the instructor stated that often we think of negatives as a continuous line — a poor economy, illness, mourning, etc. The truth, though, is that the line is segmented, just like the western red cedar sprig, with spaces between the scales. Within that spot is the chance where we

change things — our attitude, a new paradigm, a new branching out to others. It’s a lovely thought to consider, especially at this time of the year when our senses have been bombarded with the sights and sounds of the holidays. Now, as darkness becomes more prominent and the hustle of the holidays ends, we have those moments of sacred space in our segmented line of our thinking. What, we ask ourselves, do we need to change? What opportunities abound? The western red cedar has a rich history. Scientific pollen analysis and carbon-14 dating show mighty trees that grow close to 200 feet with trunk diameters 10 feet and more were in the Fraser Valley in British Columbia 6,000 years ago. They adapt to many growing conditions — cold, coastal areas; woodlands; and in lowland plains. Much of our Pacific Northwest forests are comprised of western red cedars. They have been a primary lumber for home construction. The Native Americans also have used the wood for totem poles, canoes and other tools and ceremonial objects. One of our favorite places to take visitors is the Lake Crescent Lodge, where we begin at the Storm King Ranger Station and take the trail to Marymere Falls. We traverse the ancient forest, with ferns and salal as rich green groundcover and the towering red cedars, mixed with Douglas-firs, standing sentinel in the loamy fragrance of the primeval setting. Washington has the distinction of having the largest live western red cedar, which is

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | WINTER | DECEMBER 2011

near Lake Quinault. Its wood volume is 17,7000 cubic feet. The diameter of the nearly 200-foot tree is about 19 feet. Its canopy is vast! Tall western red cedars form a backdrop to many of our gardens. Several varieties, however, fit the scale and proportion of our smaller gardens. Thuja plicata ‘Atrovirens’ (15 feet high with spread of 3-5 feet) has good winter color and is ideal for a good compact hedge. ‘Zebrina’ is conical, with yellow-striped green leaves, and grows to about 30 feet with a 10-foot spread. It is considered deer resistant (although our Diamond Point deer prove lots of horticulturists wrong). When the trees initially are planted they should be watered in a consistent way (a soaker hose is ideal) so that they don’t ever dry out. Mulch also helps maintain moisture. Presently, many of our western red cedars look as though they are dying, with a uniform pattern of dieback. This is known as flagging and is a natural occurrence, especially after an exceptionally dry summer such as the one we just had. It’s a defense mechanism to reduce water loss

by ridding trees of older, less productive foliage. As long as new growth is apparent, there is no need to be concerned. Thuja occidentalis, American arborvitae, also is useful in our gardens. ‘Degroot’s Spire’ is a compact columnar 30-foot arborvitae that can be used as a hedge. ‘Smaragd’ is a dense-growing, narrow cone that is about 15 feet tall with a 3-4 foot spread. It retains an emerald green color throughout the year. It looks like an upside down sugar ice cream cone. For a somewhat variegated look, with green and yellow, ‘Wareana Lutescens’ is a possibility. It is fairly short — 6 feet with a 3-5 foot spread. Soon I’ll be taking down our Christmas decorations and I’ll toss out the western red cedar greenery. I can rub my finger over the scale-like foliage of the western red cedar and can look even more closely to see the spaces in the segmented line. As the new year approaches I can assess whether this moment is a sacred space where I can fully see new possibilities. Nature is a great teacher!

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Erric E ic Berso errso son sspen sp pen ends ds a typ ypic iccal al Sat atur urd ur daay afte d afteern af rnoo oon oo caarv rvin ng w woood deen n stat st tat atu uees wi with h his iss ch chai hai a n saw. saaw. w.

Carving everything from A to Z Chain saw artist specializes in sculptures and distinctive gifts Story and photos by Ashley Miller Eric Berson’s lips are set in a firm line of concentration as he wields a 16-inch chain saw against a block of western red cedar. Earmuffs protect his hearing and glasses shield his eyes from flying wood chips. In front of him, the inanimate log comes alive. Chain saw carving is different from other art forms like photography or painting. Rather than filling a lens with a beautiful image or adding lines and color to a canvas, Berson creates his masterpieces by eliminating the excess. Berson got his start in Clam Gulch, Alaska. Looking at all the beetle-killed spruce trees around his property, the Alaska native wondered what to do with all of the wood. Friends offered to cut it up for firewood. He considered building a log home. In the end, inspired by a local chain saw artist, Berson decided to try his hand at carving. “I went home and did a bear and an eagle,” he recalled. “They were terrible.” Nonetheless, Berson took the wooden statues out to the end of his driveway and hung a “For Sale” sign on them, adding several more to the collection throughout the week. Much to his surprise, the carvings sold quickly and he made more than $2,000 throughout the summer. That was nine years ago. The rest, as they say, is history. Berson relocated to Port Angeles with his wife, Jennifer, to be closer to family. A schoolteacher from Texas, the couple met online when she messaged him to see how tall “SuperTall” was. Nowadays, Jennifer splits her time between raising the couple’s two children — Tia, 8, and Joshua, 4 — and helping Berson in the woodshop sanding and finishing carvings. Each week is filled with something new for Berson. Some days he creates traditional perched eagles and waving bears. Other days he works on elaborate custom orders. Requests come in from all over the world. This month, he’s completing a 6-foot grizzly bear to ship to Austria and an eagle to send to Switzerland, among others. When he’s working, speed isn’t important to Berson. In fact, he’d rather take two hours carving a realistic grizzly bear that a customer will admire and appreciate than rush through the project in just one hour simply to brag, “I earn $100 an hour.” “Carving seems like an easy business where you sit on the side of the road and sell your work but there’s a lot more to it,” Berson said. “We’re running a legitimate business using QuickBooks, maintaining a website and handing out business cards like candy.” Being his own boss at The Dreamer’s Woods is great, Berson continued, but sometimes the pressure of providing for a family on an unreliable income is overwhelming. When it comes to his work, Berson is his own toughest critic.

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | WINTER | DECEMBER 2011

Above, left: Tucked into some trees or bushes, this lifelike wooden fox carved by chain saw artist Eric Berson is likely to make passersby look twice. Above, center: Owls are a popular Pacific Northwest subject for Berson. At right: Berson stands next to a finished eagle sculpture. Below right: Chain saw artist Eric Berson holds two small bears, examples of the less expensive carvings he has for sale at The Dreamer’s Woods.

“In 10 years, I hope to look back at my work and say, ‘Why did anybody ever pay for this? I’m so much better now.’” — Eric Berson, chain saw artist “People see what I create and love it because they see the finished product but when I look at it, I see how it doesn’t compare with what I envisioned,” Berson said. He’s also modest to a fault. “I don’t think I have a natural talent,” Berson insisted. “I study, I practice and I develop over time. The talent is sticking to it until the carving is good enough to sell.” It’s his humble attitude, however, that keeps Berson continuously striving for greatness. “I want to always get better and better,” he said. “In 10 years, I hope to look back at my work and say, ‘Why did anybody ever pay for this? I’m so much better now.’” Because he’s self-taught, Berson’s technique is unlike any other carver’s. And though he’s carved hundreds of thousands of pieces, he always can tell his work from another person’s. Every year, Berson returns to Alaska to carve and sell his work for the summer months while Jennifer runs the gift shop. Born and raised in Alaska, Berson always has called the countryside “home.” He receives some of his most prestigious orders from tourists passing through the area and finds comfort in the wild surroundings. Berson can carve just about anything but he prefers wildlife over people or things. Alpacas, bears, cougars, dogs, eagles, foxes, moose, owls and other creatures; his work tends to be realistic rather than cartoonish. Sculptures ranges in price from just $10 to thousands of dollars. Each piece is completely “finished,” which means it’s sanded, painted or stained and will require little to no maintenance over the years.

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | WINTER | DECEMBER 2011

The Dreamer’s Woods Eric Berson is an Alaska-born chain saw artist who creates one-of-a-kind sculptures. His pieces have found homes all over the world, one of the largest being a 14-foot waving bear on display at the Great Bear Ford Dealership in Soldotna, Alaska. Berson lives with his family in Port Angeles but travels to Alaska for a few months each summer to work and sell carvings. Orders should be placed at least one month before the desired completion date and earlier during the holidays. For more information, go online to www.thedreamerswoods.com or call 360-477-5888.

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Sequim Arts co-founder exhibiting life’s work at MAC Story by Reneé Mizar, Communications Coordinator, Museum & Arts Center in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley While the sheer volume and breadth of media represented in Joy McCarter’s artistic portfolio is remarkable by any standard, so, too, is how much of collective work serves as a chronicle of North Olympic Peninsula history. Finding inspiration in that which surrounds her, the 97-year-old McCarter has recorded more than 50 years of area history through her art by painting farms, barns, homesteads, mills, landscapes and seascapes from Port Hadlock to Sekiu that are long since changed or have all but vanished. “Just driving around, if I saw something I thought looked nice or was something special, rather than take a picture, I’d paint it,” said McCarter, noting she most often painted on-site, even from the confines of her car if necessary. “It had to do something special to me, like I wonder who lived there or when it was built. I wouldn’t break out the Sequim Arts co-founder Joy McCarter, left, with Mary Marsh, the organization’s current historian. McCarter is the last surviving founder of the nonprofit organization. Image courtesy of Mary Marsh

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | WINTER | DECEMBER 2011

paints just to paint it.” An exhibition of McCarter’s collective body of work will be showcased in “Joy McCarter: In Retrospect,” the January 2012 featured art exhibit at the Museum & Arts Center in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley (MAC). The exhibit, which includes several purchasable pieces, as well as prints, and features McCarter’s pottery, photographs, sketches and paintings done in acrylic, oil, watercolor, octopus ink and solar technique, runs Jan. 3-28 at the MAC Exhibit Center, 175 W. Cedar St. in Sequim. McCarter, who lives in Carlsborg, plans to attend a reception celebrating the show from 5-8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 6, which is part of the First Friday Art Walk Sequim. “The show covers as much of her artistic career as we can,” said MAC Art Exhibit Committee chairman Linda Stadtmiller. “It’s wonderful to find an artist who isn’t stagnant — and she’s never been stagnant. She’s progressive, always experimenting, and has been a real inspiration to people.”

Making & painting area history In the mid-1960s, McCarter joined a handful of fellow artists in forming an art club to locally promote the visual arts that later became known as Sequim Arts,

a nonprofit organization which now boasts about 150 members. McCarter, who served as Sequim Arts president four times, said that given the lack of art galleries or exhibition halls in the area, local storefront windows, banks, restaurants and private homes often served as exhibit space in those early years. “I’d talk to the owners of the businesses and they’d let us display in their windows. Sometimes they’d let us display more than one, so we’d put four or five pieces in there,” said McCarter, who remains a Sequim Arts member. Increased exhibition venues and opportunities for artists are just some of the many changes McCarter has witnessed in the more than 50 years she has lived on the North Olympic Peninsula. A native Washingtonian who grew up in the mill town of Port Gamble, McCarter said she became the first licensed female Realtor on the peninsula when she moved to Sequim in the mid-1950s. McCarter said she launched her own realty business on Water Street in Port Townsend in 1958 and opened an office in Sequim in the early 1960s. She said her first downtown Sequim office consisted of a small rented workroom within a service station near the Clallam Co-Op. “I operated out of one room and it was a slow process. People weren’t used to having a company selling their place, so a lot of times they didn’t want to pay somebody for something they figured they could do themselves,” McCarter said. “I didn’t get rich in real estate but I made a living.” Within a few years, McCarter’s Joy Land Company, Inc. grew to employ more than 30 people working at four realty offices spread across the North Olympic Peninsula, including one in Port Angeles. She sold the company in 1979 after 20 years in business and worked at other area real estate offices for another decade until retiring at age 85. She cites selling the McAlmond House, circa 1861, in Dungeness, which has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1976, as one of the most memorable dealings in her 45-year real estate career.

“The Model,” a pastel created by McCarter in 1990.

“Kreider Farm on Lost Mountain,” a watercolor painted by Joy McCarter in 1978.

“I had that listing the very first time it was sold and I subdivided it into lots,” she said. “It stands out because it was the first subdivision in the county and I orchestrated that.”

Chronicling her life’s work For the past two years, Sequim Arts historian Mary Marsh has been working with McCarter to chronicle the latter’s entire body of work and in preparation for the January MAC exhibition. Supplied with a camera, note pad and tape measure, Marsh diligently records the title, year and medium details of each painting while asking McCarter for any background details about the subject matter, such as scene location. “She’s such a special lady. I’d love to document her work as much as possible for our (MAC and Sequim Arts) histories for people to appreciate. I’d hate to see this body of work not honored,” Marsh said. “I love her inventiveness. I guess we’re kindred spirits because we like to do the same types of things, using different textures.” An example of McCarter’s experimental spirit includes having developed a method of painting underwater using acrylic ink known as solar technique, which will be among the array of mediums represented in her exhibition. Just as Marsh is documenting McCarter’s work as an artist and Sequim Arts founder, MAC programs coordinator Priscilla Hudson has begun recording McCarter’s history under the purview of being a longtime resident and former area

“Tongue Point,” an acrylic and ink work by Joy McCarter.

businesswoman. Hudson also is coordinating a historical display of McCarter’s choice keepsakes and scrapbooks to showcase at the MAC in conjunction with the art exhibit. “I started joining Mary on her visits with Joy to seek out historical information while assisting with preparing works for Joy’s upcoming art show. Things like her family travels, favorite doll, early years in Port Gamble or her trip to Europe at age 80,” said Hudson, who oversees the MAC’s Oral History Program. “She is a delight to be around, always smiling.” Proving that it is never too late to pursue one’s passion, McCarter said she began drawing and “fooling around” with art at age 10, but did not begin fully exploring her artistic talents until later in life after rearing a family. A largely self-taught artist who describes her paintings as impressionistic, McCarter has led numerous artist’ retreats in years past, including several annual painting workshops at Camp David Jr. on Lake Crescent, and welcomes opportunities to share her skills and paint alongside fellow artists and Sequim Arts members. “I never did art for money or selling it, never made a business out of it, but it was pretty important and I did some teaching along the way,” McCarter said. “Not organized teaching, just helping people.” Right: Joy McCarter demonstrates her method of underwater acrylic ink painting known as solar technique. Image courtesy of Joy McCarter

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | WINTER | DECEMBER 2011

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Above, left: Jim Dries and Carol Swarbrick Dries are two of the founders of Readers Theatre Plus. At right: This past February, Readers Theatre Plus presented a dinner theater production to benefit the repainting of the historical Dungeness Schoolhouse in Sequim. From left, Barbara Wilson, Sandi Lockwood, Barbara Hughes, Ric Munhall, Jeff Cool, Alexandria Edouart, Mary Griffith and Erika van Calcar made up the cast of “Murder Most Fowl.” Submitted photos

The PLUS is Center-Stage Story by Jerry Kraft “Readers Theatre Plus is unlike any other organization I’ve ever been involved with,” said Paul Martin, a writer, board member and enthusiastic participant in this unique theatrical entity. “Everything we do is so that we can support other community organizations. We exist to make money for other people. What other theater have you ever heard of that can say that?” In 2006, a group of Port Angeles and Sequim theater people, including Broadway veteran Carol Swarbrick-Dries, her husband, Jim, Rebecca Redshaw, Charlotte Watts and several others got together to present a reading from Redshaw’s recently published novella, “Dear Jennifer.” Although the initial presentation was for that single work, “It was always our intention to have a continuing company,” said Swarbrick-Dries. A year later they did their first summer production of a Gilbert and Sullivan musical and since then they have launched more than 30 productions, ranging from original comedies to mysteries, Christmas shows and literary classics.

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | WINTER | DECEMBER 2011

From the beginning members’ ambition was to create dramatic presentations done as readings and to benefit as many community organizations as possible. “When we started we had to pay royalties and rental fees and production costs out of the box office before we had any money to give to other groups. With our first Gilbert and Sullivan (royalty free) we also had our first silent auction and then we finally had a bank account. Now every cent that comes from the door is given to our designated beneficiary, which is different with each show,” said Swarbrick-Dries. “That summer Gilbert and Sullivan is the only production from which RT+ takes money in order to pay for all the other production expenses during the year.” “While it’s wonderful to be able to help these groups financially,” she said,” It’s even better to be able to make them better known and to raise the public awareness of what they’re doing.” In addition to enriching those groups, Readers Theatre Plus (or RT+) also has a scholarship fund that awards Sequim and Port Angeles high school students. The only requirement is that they intend to major in any of the arts.

Carol Swarbrick Dries presented a $700 scholarship to Katie Byrne Moriarty in 2009.

Beyond that, they look at community service, grades, school activities and so forth. The “Plus” designation in its name signifies that the group wants to present all forms of local art, whether it be painting, photography, music or any other medium in conjunction with its theatrical presentations. At the center, of course, is the presentation of plays. But why “readers theater” and not a traditional full staging? “There are several reasons,” Swarbrick-Dries said. “We can involve many community members who, for one reason or another, can’t memorize a lot of lines any more. Because we usually only have about three rehearsals before the performance, people who couldn’t commit to a full production rehearsal schedule can be involved with us. A doctor, for instance, could say “OK, I’m not on call that week, so I can be a part of this. That’s also true for many other kinds of working people or for parents who have children to care for. It’s also a great chance for people who have never done theater to get a taste of what performing is like.”

Imaginative power Make no mistake, readers theater IS performance. “I didn’t think I’d like it at first,” Paul Martin said, “But this is not people reading you a story the way you might read a story to a child. All of the emotion has to come from the tenor of the reader’s voice and there

are some very talented people involved in this. And a lot of people who didn’t know they were talented.” He also has been surprised by the impact of not fully staging the play. “It’s a lot like old-time radio theater,” Martin said, “The audience has to use its imagination to create the place and the people and all the drama. I’ve been amazed when people have actually cried during a reading, with us holding books in our hands. When we did our last comedy we had standing ovations. You don’t expect that at a reading.” In addition to the imaginative power of a strong reading, this format also means that RT+ doesn’t have the expense and time requirements for building sets and doing lighting and costumes and makeup and all that. Again, that means that the money that comes from the door can go to worthy groups. Readers theater also allows people who never may have had the courage to perform from onstage to find out if it’s for them. “I had one actor tell me that being on stage was something that always had been on his bucket list and this was the only way it ever would have happened. We’ve also had many people go on from a first experience with us to participating in other local productions,” Swarbrick-Dries said. Most of their productions have been done at the Old

Organizations that Readers Theatre Plus has supported with its proceeds from its performances since 2006 include American Hero Quilts, Clallam County Fire Chiefs Association, Family Planning of Clallam County, First Book of Clallam County, First Step Family Support Center, Forks Food Bank, Habitat for Humanity of Clallam County, Healthy Families of Clallam County, League of Women Voters, Museum & Arts Center in the SequimDungeness Valley (Dungeness Schoolhouse), Olympic Peninsula Humane Society, Olympic Theatre Arts, Parenting Matters Foundation, Peninsula Singers, Port Angeles Senior Center, Sequim Education Foundation, Sequim Senior Activity Center, Sew Much Comfort, Special Needs Advocacy Parents and Volunteer Hospice of Clallam County.

Dungeness Schoolhouse near Sequim, but they also have been welcomed by the Port Angeles Community Playhouse. “They’ve been great about working us into their own schedule and supporting us so that we can bring our shows to a larger audience,” Swarbrick-Dries said. “From the very beginning we’ve never been about competing with any other theater, but to cooperate and co-create.” With more than 30 productions behind them, RT+ looks forward to many more to come. In February, they plan a program of “Movies and Their Music” to celebrate great film music from the 1940s-1960s. That will be presented at the Old Dungeness Schoolhouse, which has become their most frequent performance venue. There also will be a gala presentation on Oscar night at the Sequim Elk’s Lodge. In the spring they will be doing an encore performance of a production called “Warriors,” a very popular piece they presented in 2010 about the battles of aging. Readers Theatre Plus has a loyal audience that is constantly growing. That must be, at least in part, because of the quality of the presentations, but it also must be because the community realizes what a distinguished and admirable group of people is making all this happen. The participants benefit, the wealth of community organizations who are beneficiaries of their generosity benefit, the audiences who have their emotions and imaginations stirred benefit and the art of theater itself benefits. Theater began in the presentation of rituals enacted before a community of common interest. Readers Theatre Plus is a relatively new community arts group that is, in essence, very old indeed.

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Story and photos by Elizabeth Kelly It was a serendipitous visit to a Northwest Driftwood Artists’ show in Seattle that began a new career for Tuttie Peetz as a driftwood artist and teacher. “I had never seen anything like it,” Peetz said. She now has been working with driftwood for 15 years. Having been born and raised on the East Coast, Peetz lived in “many places,” including Seattle in the late 1970’s for 2½ years. “Wherever we were, we always came back to the Pacific Northwest for vacations,” she said. When she and her husband retired, they chose to come here. “This is God’s country,” Peetz said. Not long after moving to Sequim in 1993, Peetz left her work in family financial counseling and studied to become a certified instructor in the LuRon® Method of developing driftwood into works of art. “I like to the term ‘found wood’ rather than driftwood,” Peetz said. Too often, people associate drift-

Tuttie Peetz with a pile of future driftwood sculptures.

wood with the ocean, but in fact, naturally weathered wood can be found near rivers, lakes or around old forest clear cuts, she explained. “Mother Nature is really the best artist,” she said. The LuRon Method was created by Lucile Worlund, a native of the Pacific Northwest, who learned the technique when she lived in Neah Bay among the Makah tribe. She went on to found the Northwest Driftwood Artists in 1963. A time-consuming process, LuRon involves scraping, burnishing, sanding and handrubbing to display the inherent grains and colors deep within the wood. Peetz studied under Bernice Hillis in Sequim and subsequently was invited by the Northwest Driftwood Teachers Association to train with them in the greater Seattle area. “I went over there once a month for two years,” she said. After presenting lesson plans and being tested to prove her ability as a teacher, she completed her certification. While she teaches the LuRon Method in her driftwood sculpting classes, Peetz said she also wanted her students to be able to “expand and be creative.” To help facilitate t hat, she and 12 others founded the Olympic Driftwood Sculptors, a n onprof it

organization established in 2008 “to promote and share the art of driftwood sculpture.” ODS now has 70 members and they offer four to five shows a year to exhibit their work. Their next show will be in March 2012 at the Dungeness River Audubon Center at Railroad Bridge Park near Sequim. “I’m very proud of the ODS group,” Peetz said. She explained that the LuRon Method can be limiting and has specific criteria, such as not adding any other material to a sculpture. “I say, don’t put an artist in a box!” she exclaimed. Her sculpture titled, “Forest Gem” made of twisted cedar and inlaid with small slivers of turquoise, is a good example of Peetz’s work outside the box. The lightly colored cedar contrasts against the flat black painted, two-tiered base and the hint of turquoise completes the dramatic design. “The way you base a piece of driftwood art makes a big difference in how it looks,” Peetz said. The base can be wood, metal or both, she said. “It has to be able to stage the piece and also support it,” she added. “Naming each piece is also part of the creativity,” she said. Peetz explained further that a piece of found wood art can take four or five months to complete. “It is mostly all hand work,” she said, “at least 80 percent.” Depending on the complexity of the piece she is working on, she works from one to six hours a day on her art. However, it’s not work to her. “I enjoy the process,” she said. “It’s like opening a present — that’s how I feel starting a new piece.” When Peetz described how looking at driftwood is like looking at a cloud — each person seeing something different — it is easy to understand the allure of making something beautiful from a piece of wood that most people would walk past without even seeing. In her backyard, Peetz has several collections of possibilities for future art projects. Many of these piles are kept for

“Coming About” – award-winning art by Tuttie Peetz

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | WINTER | DECEMBER 2011

Example of enhanced driftwood art with inlaid turquoise

Left: Found wood sculpture by Tuttie Peetz – “Soaring High”

the ODS group to choose from, but she has one stack of treasured pieces that she has searched out and selected for her own projects. To the untrained eye, it looks like any slash pile. “That pile of wood represents many hours of scouring the woods, carrying and hard work,” she laughed. When beginning a sculpture, the wood first must be cleared of any dirt, moss or other debris by scraping thoroughly until the natural wood grain is exposed. Next comes sanding and oiling, until the artwork is complete, Peetz said. The next step in the process is burnishing the wood. “The traditional tool to use in burnishing is an old deer antler,” she continued. “Rubbing the wood with an antler compresses the cells of the wood together, creating a natural shine.” After the burnishing, a piece

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | WINTER | DECEMBER 2011

can be waxed with beeswax mixed with turpentine. “My favorite wax is Kiwi neutral shoe polish,” she said, because “it’s high in carnauba wax.” Peetz added that she never uses lacquer as a finish on her artwork. “The wood itself is so beautiful and lacquer would only hide the wood,” she said. Peetz has been teaching classes in her studio for nine years. She first began teaching an adult education class at the Sequim Community School. She said a class of 10 to 12 students is ideal. “More than that is too many because we work one-on-one most of the time.” The three-hour classes are held once a week for six- week terms and cost $40. An avowed believer in not requiring people to spend a lot of money to take a class, Peetz said she asks the students to bring several pieces of wood with them and they decide together which pieces would make the best art. Seeing the potential for beauty in a piece of discarded wood is part of what they learn in the class, Peetz explained. The students also need to supply their own X-Acto handle tool, round router blades and spray bottle. Instead of asking her students to buy sandpaper, Peetz buys a special sandpaper with a cloth backing. “It is made in Switzerland and sells in 6-foot rolls. I buy a roll, cut it up into sections, and each student buys his or her own portion for $3,” she said. Several of Peetz’s sculptures have won awards and in 2004 she was awarded Best of Show People’s Choice and Best of Show Peer’s Choice at the Northwest Driftwood Artist Show in Seattle. She has entered her work in the Clallam County Fair and the Beachcomber’s Fair in Ocean Shores. Her artwork also has been displayed in the Museum & Arts Exhibit Center in Sequim and the Northwind Gallery in Port Townsend. While winning awards can be deeply satisfying, it is the work itself that brings the most reward to Tuttie Peetz. She concluded, “The personal satisfaction from completing a piece is amazing.“ Her ready smile radiates she already is a winner in life.

“Vapor Trail”

Edensaw builds a company board by board Story and photos by Patricia Morrison Coate Bubinga, garapa, jatoba, obeche, sapele. Sounding like a foreign language to most, they’re common words to those wise in the ways of wood at Edensaw Woods, Ltd., in Port Townsend. From small carving projects to building a boat from keel to mast or giving yachts an extra touch of elegance, Edensaw has been meeting the needs of woodworkers and shipwrights since 1984. Owners Jim Ferris and Charlie Moore were buying lumber and building boats themselves nearly 30 years ago in Port Townsend. “We saw a need for it. We were building boats and saw others needing wood,” Ferris said from the company’s campus on Seton Road. Within five years, the operation moved from two guys with a tarpcovered truck and all the lumber that would fit into it in one warehouse, a millwork shop, an office and showrooms featuring flooring, woodworking At left, a snakewood board, so named for its scaling pattern. In the headline, the letters’ background is a purpleheart timber from Edensaw.

tools and U-pick lumber pieces ranging in size from 6-inchsquare blocks to a 10' by 7' salvaged redwood burl slab. “We buy and sell wood products domestically and internationally from all around the world and distribute from here and our veneer warehouse in Tacoma,” Ferris said, adding Edensaw’s fleet of nine trucks delivers to the Olympic Peninsula, San Juan islands, Puget Sound and into Vancouver, British Columbia. Edensaw also ships nationally and internationally. Its products are categorized as lumber, plywood, veneer and blocks/pieces. Annual sales from all products are approximately $8 million, Moore said modestly, and he estimated the company sells between 300,000 and 400,000 board feet per year. Although customers certainly can buy oak, maple or cherry for new kitchen cabinets, a good part of Edensaw’s reputation is based on its large A-Z inventory of exotic woods, from African blackwood to ziricote. As of 2010, 115 types of wood were available and samples of 100 of them are displayed in the company’s office area, so customers can see and feel the characteristics of the wood. The variety of grain patterns is illuminating — swirls, stripes, flames, scales, waves, plumes, etc. Ferris said Edensaw is committed to purchasing Forest Stewardship Council certified wood products “that are sourced from forests managed to the highest environmental, social and economic standards.” “We were one of the very first ones to be certified and we try to stock as much FSC certified wood as possible. Not all wood is available as FSC but we stock as much as we can of it that is,” Ferris said. “A lot of our wood goes into cabinet building, flooring, boat construction, interior house trim packages and hotel lobbies with high-end veneer stock,” Ferris said. “Home woodworkers buy a lot of product, as do professional furniture makers.” Customers can buy as small or as large a piece as needed plus we have a showroom with all different kinds of wood-

Above, top: Edensaw supplied beautiful bubinga wood and John Hansey crafted this kitchen for Tim and Jill Copsey of Sequim. Hansey also relied on the company for this striking sapele counter and table for Roger and Kari Olsen of Sequim. Photos by John Hansey

working tools for amateurs and professionals by such well-known brands as Fein, Festool and Rockler. They also can browse the warehouse and select individual pieces of lumber or plywood for matching purposes. “We sell a lot of marine plywood and decking in exotic imports from South America. In building wooden boats, we supply white oak or purpleheart for the framing; Douglasfir and sapele for decking and Sitka spruce for masts,” Ferris explained. “You can use anything on the interior — whatever grabs your fancy.” In the milling shop, employees rip, plane, mold and sand interior trim in styles from simple to complex, the latter with

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | WINTER | DECEMBER 2011

five-head or six-head molders. Sometimes customers opt for veneer instead of solid wood for cabinetry or furniture because of the expense, so, â&#x20AC;&#x153;We will lay it up for customers on whatever core they want. Popular domestic veneers are cherry, eastern maple, walnut, alder and Douglas-fir while imported ones are bubinga, sapele, khaya, jatoba and purpleheart.â&#x20AC;? Ferris noted the Tacoma warehouse has â&#x20AC;&#x153;the largest veneer inventory in the Northwest.â&#x20AC;? Great wood wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t go far without great customer service and Edensawâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 3,000 or so customers attest to that. Professional wood craftsmen John and Geneva Hansey, of Sequim, recalled in those early days, seeing Edensawâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s inventory required â&#x20AC;&#x153;a flashlight in a barn.â&#x20AC;? The Hanseys vouched that Ferris and Moore are every bit as customeroriented today as they were 27 years ago. Geneva Hansey noted, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The people who buy from us are very particular and so our wood has to be special, too. Edensaw takes the time to take pictures of the veneer so John can import into an actual drawing of the piece to show the customer.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve definitely taken care of us over the years,â&#x20AC;? John Hansey said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll need something and usually they manage to get it to me that day. It would be difficult doing our busi-

ness without them â&#x20AC;&#x201D; they carry such a nice inventory. Jim (Ferris) once went to South Africa to buy bubinga slabs for a project I had in mind â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re like a big yacht company that buys thousands of yards a year. I try to be very loyal to them â&#x20AC;&#x201D; I always check with Edensaw first.â&#x20AC;? Haven Boatworks coowner Julia Maynard has high praise for Edensaw, too. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve (she and co-owner Stephen Gale) have had a very good relationship for years. Edensaw supplies most of the wood for projects weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve done â&#x20AC;&#x201D; for example, a fair amount of wide and long board of sapele for planking and purpleheart timber. Having them in town and delivering to us is very nice.â&#x20AC;? Edensaw has about 40 employees, many of them long term, which also sits favorably with John Hansey. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A lot of their employees have been there for at least 15 years and for a company doing a lot of growth, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a neat thing because it shows they take care of their customers in that way, too.â&#x20AC;?

Left: Edensaw co-owner Jim Ferris displays a salvaged redwood burl slab, 10' by 7' by 3", thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s for sale. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s very common for Edensaw to stock large-dimension lumber and timber.

In the mill shop, Richard M. Rowe Jr. planes alder boards for window and door frames.

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Events CALENDAR EC to Forks

Jan. 13-14

Port Townsend

Port Angeles Sequim

Jan. 7

Jan. 6

• First Friday Art Walk — 5-8 p.m. in downtown Sequim. Fun and free selfguided tour of local art galleries, artists’ studios, the Museum & Arts Center and alternative art venues on the first Friday of every month from 5-8 p.m., 360-460-3023 or www.sequimartwalk.com.

• Port Townsend Shorts — 7:30 p.m. at Pope Marine Building on Water Street. Key City Public Theatre presents dramatic readings of literary works in conjunction with Port Townsend’s monthly Gallery Walk. Free admission; www.keycitypublictheatre.org. Jan. 14 • Second Saturday Art Walk — 11 a.m. at the kiosk on Railroad Avenue and Laurel Street, Port Angeles, the second Saturday of every month. Guided downtown tour discusses the techniques and artistry of the various pieces. Some of the artists will be available to answer questions about their work. 360-457-9614 or www.port angelesdowntown.com.

• Port Angeles Chamber Orchestra Concert — 7 p.m. Friday, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 301 N. Lopez Ave., Port Angeles; 7 p.m. Saturday, Sequim Worship Center, 640 N. Sequim Ave., Sequim. 457-5579. Jan. 20 • Valeri Glava and Lee Tomboulian of the former USSR Republic of Moldova and the USA, respectively, perform classical to bluegrass music, from Broadway to the theaters of Europe, 8 p.m. Sponsored by Port Ludlow Arts Council at Bay Club, 437-2208, www.portludlowartscouncil.com.

Jan. 28

• Port Angeles Symphony’s Young Artist Competition — 9:30 a.m. Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 301 N. Lopez Ave., Port Angeles. 457-5579. 19

• Snowgrass 10th Annual Bluegrass Concert — 5:30-8:30 p.m. at Port Angeles High School auditorium, 304 E. Park Ave., Port Angeles. A bluegrass gala, mid-winter evening of American string band music to benefit the Port Angeles First Step Family Support Center programs. See www.firststepfamily. org for ticket information or call 360457-8355. Also note earlier start time. Feb. 3-19 • “Spitfire Grill.” 7:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. matinees. Presented by Olympic Theatre Arts, 414 N. Sequim Ave., Sequim. 360-683-7326 or www.olympic-theatre.tripod.com/. For upcoming performances, see ad below. Feb. 4 • Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra Concert — 10 a.m. dress rehearsal, 7:30 p.m. concert, Port Angeles High School auditorium, 304 E. Park Ave., Port Angeles. 360-457-5579. • Port Townsend Shorts — 7:30 p.m. at Pope Marine Building on Water Street. Key City Public Theatre presents dramatic readings of literary works in conjunction with Port Townsend’s monthly Gallery Walk. Free admission; www.keycitypublictheatre.org.

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LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | WINTER | DECEMBER 2011

Feb. 9-26

Feb. 18-20

March 8-9

• The 16th annual Playwrights’ Festival — Productions and staged readings of new works by local and regional and national playwrights. Award-winning playwright Constance Congdon will perform her one-woman play “Is Sex Possible?” All events take place at the Key City Playhouse, 419 Washington St., Port Townsend. For specific play performances, dates and tickets, see www.keycity publictheatre.org or call 360-379-0195.

• Olympic Peninsula Salmon Derby — Sponsored by Gardiner Salmon Derby Association. 360-797-7710 or www. gardinersalmonderby.org. Feb. 25 • Port Townsend Community Orchestra Winter Concert at 7:30 p.m. at Chimacum High School auditorium, pre-concert lectures with Maestro Dewey Ehling at 6:45 p.m. www.porttownsendorchestra.org. • 21st Annual Shipwrights’ Regatta — Sponsored by the Wooden Boat Foundation, 360-385-3628, www. woodenboat.org. Feb. 25-26 • 30th KONP Home Show — 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, Port Angeles High School, 304 E. Park Ave., Port Angeles. 360-457-1450, office@konp.com or www.konp.com. March 3 • Port Townsend Shorts — 7:30 p.m. at Pope Marine Building on Water Street, Key City Public Theatre presents dramatic readings of literary works in conjunction with Port Townsend’s monthly Gallery Walk. Free admission; www.keycitypublictheatre.org.

• “Here, There & Everywhere — 7 p.m. Key City Playhouse, 419 Washington St., Port Townsend. Monologues by contemporary women playwrights from around the world. $15 suggested donation, 360-379-0195 or www.keycity publictheatre.org. March 10 • Port Angeles Symphony Concert — 10 a.m. dress rehearsal, 7:30 p.m. concert, Port Angeles High School auditorium, 304 E. Park Ave., Port Angeles. 360-457-5579, pasymphony@olypen.com, or olypen. com/pasymphony. • Buzz Brass, instrumental quintet, performs classics. 8 p.m. Sponsored by Port Ludlow Arts Council at Bay Club. 4372208, www.portludlowartscouncil.com. March 15-18 • 30th Annual Fort Worden Kitemakers Conference — Fort Worden State Park Conference Center. www.kitemakers.org. March 16-18 • Northwest Maritime Spring Boating Symposium. Sponsored by Northwest Maritime Center and Wooden Boat Foundation, www.woodenboat.org. March 17 • Port Angeles Symphony’s Applause Auction. Live and silent auctions, dinner.

Feb. 17

• The Perfect Gentlemen recreate close harmonies of the Ink Spots and Pied Pipers, barbershop and a cappella. 8 p.m. Sponsored by Port Ludlow Arts Council at Bay Club, 437-2208, portludlowartscouncil.com.

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | WINTER | DECEMBER 2011

Reservations required. 457-5579, portangelessymphony.org or pasymphony@ olypen.com. March 17-18 14th Annual Soroptimist Gala Garden Show — 9 a.m-5 p.m. Saturday; 10 a.m.4 p.m. Boys & Girls Club, 400 W. Fir St., Sequim. Free education classes, vendors, speakers. www.sequimgardenshow.com.

March 23-25

• Victorian Heritage Days, sponsored by the Victorian Society in America – Northwest Chapter, www.victorianfestival.org. March 31-April 1 • North Peninsula Building, Remodeling and Energy Expo — 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday at Sequim High School, Sequim, sponsored by the North Peninsula Building Association, Port Angeles.

THE Living END

Working wood for love & profit (or at least the love) Essay by Jim Tolpin Now how did it ever happen that I wound up working wood for a living? Not just the occasional job, mind you, but for my entire working career. That wasn’t supposed to happen. I was just going to help my grad-school roommate install a cabinetmaking project that he was doing on the side. It was just going to be an intriguing mid-term break from academia in the fall of 1969. But then I touched the wood and it seems I’ve never been able to let go of it since. Over the next four decades I continued to chop, saw, shape and smooth the stuff. The biggest draw for me (and the people paying me to do it, obviously) wasn’t, of course, the wood itself but the things I built from it. Mostly it was custom cabinet work and high-end residential and commercial finish work that brought in the bacon over most of my career. But in between projects, filled with a young man’s passion, I eagerly explored many other pathways in the world of woodworking. Over one fine summer in the early 1970s, I experienced the truly ineffable joy of constructing a small, seaworthy skiff from a pile of pine boards. (Here I must thank Peter Culler for his “Good Little Skiff ” design and Bud McIntosh for telling me I could do it and then answering a barrage of questions over the ensuing months that probably made him think he was wrong about that.) The hull was done by that fall and after I whittled out a pair of oars from spruce 2 x 6’s, I rowed the little vessel out to a tiny uninhabited island off the coast of Maine and claimed it for my own (for that day at least). I thought I was pretty cool until I walked to the seaward side of the island and saw another young man sailing past the island, heading further down east under sail in a gorgeous Whitehall that he had built! By the next summer I was working with my friend Ken Kellman in the woods of Pennsylvania, chopping down young, straight-as-an-arrow, white oak trees. We were doing sustainable, selective cutting before it was PC I’ll have you know — and yes, we did the deed with an axe followed by a buck saw! Admittedly, we are only talking here about a half-dozen trees over the course of that summer. Dave Sawyer drove down from Vermont in his old Model T pickup to show us how to work that wonderfully pliable and strong wood into an early American hayfork. Which, by the way, actually works much better than its modern metal counterpart because of its inherent spring action — plus it costs nothing if you know how to make one! We spent much of that summer splitting out wrist-sized cants from our harvested 4-foot long bolts which we then shaped to a pattern with drawknives on a homemade shaving horse. After carefully splitting out the fork’s tines, we steamed them to a proper hayfork curve over an open fire, rubbed a little pine pitch into the burn and then trundled them off to sell at Appalachian craft fairs. A few years later I was back in New England and again working with pine but this time in massive cants that we (we being the crew of home builder Frank Whittemore) hewed into the timbers of reproduction colonial homes and cottages. I learned to cut and fit the massive joints needed to tie the beams and posts together, drawing them home with tapered white oak pegs that we whittled to shape. Soon after moving to the Olympic Peninsula in the late 1970s, I put these skills to work

at Charles Landau’s Timbercraft Homes which was, amazingly, also building American colonial-style homes including a saltbox that we erected in downtown Tokyo. (But that’s another story!) Then my path through the woodworking woods took yet another turn after having set up shop in the old DeLeo building at the Boat Haven in Port Townsend where I kept busy building my usual cabinetwork and assorted boat furnishings such as skylights, boarding ladders and cuddy hatches. At the end of the summer of 1983, a Hungarian gypsy pulled up to the shop with a rickety old sheepherder’s wagon in tow that he had found in the high desert of Idaho. “Can anybody here turn this thing into a gypsy caravan?” Well, naturally I said, “Of course!” having absolutely no idea how I would do such a thing. But after a particular long winter and spring, a caravan did indeed roll out of the shop and then across America behind the vehicle of one mysterious gypsy. Over the course of the next 20 years another six vardos (Romany for “living wagons”) rolled out of my shop, wandering time machines crafted of Olympic Peninsula cedar, spruce and fir (and Edensaw-sourced mahogany!). From boxes to boats, from pitchforks to pegs and from cottages to caravans, the past four decades have been, for me, all about making interesting things from wood. But after recently turning to teaching the craft of woodworking — in particular the working of wood with hand tools — another and somewhat surprising path has opened before me. This time, though, it’s not in the realm of cabinetmaking, boatbuilding, timberframing, woodcrafts or wagonwrighting. The way has come full circle back to where I started: To the act of simply touching the wood. Now that ineffable joy arises as my hands push a sharp smoothing plane along a board’s face; or as they guide a chisel as it slices almost effortlessly across its end grain; or as I cradle a spokeshave in the palm of my hand to shape a curve along its edge. It seems to be enough now to simply work the wood. For I have come to realize that while the stuff I make is for the world, the making of it is for me. And I’m more than just fine with that! Jim Tolpin currently teaches hand tool woodworking at the Port Townsend School of Woodworking at Fort Worden State Park. Visit www.ptwoodschool.com for current offerings. He also has written numerous books on woodworking which are available through local bookstores or online. More information on these books and his projects can be found at Tolpin’s personal website: www.jimtolpin.com.

LIVING ON THE PENINSULA | WINTER | DECEMBER 2011

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