From the Workshop: Time, patience and reusing - they work together

It took awhile but it finally arrived.

I trusted in time, patience and my desire to not throw things away - and they paid off, after three weeks of musing.

I needed an idea re what to do with 14 end pieces from cedar posts given to me by a contractor, and it dawned on me this morning as I woke up - I’ll take them to the lumber yard I visited yesterday morning.


I’ll ask the owner (my age, similar interests, old straw hat sitting on an office chair) to cut them into 3/4 inch panels, and I’ll then turn them into four -, eight - and twelve-plexes for birds, and sidetables for Rietveld chairs. The idea was worth waiting for and the man’s labour is worth a fair price.


["More four, eights and twelves to follow: photos GAH]
Sometimes ideas arrive more quickly.

Last week I spotted used lumber at a curbside near my home and an idea immediately popped into my head: Cut it into pieces for my version of the J.R. birdhouse (circa 1946).

The finished results are now parked in my yard as a coat of linseed oil dries.


Good idea?

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Most things we throw away could be reused in one form or another. How do we slow the ‘throwaway habit’ and overuse of landfills?

PS A US reader asked re birdhouse sales recently and I have since learned the cost of shipping and handling to the US is about $20 per unit. That’s almost the price of my smallest models so it sounds like a costly venture to me.

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