Also from Robin Wood (robin-wood.co.uk):
“Video of the Japanese Tea house being put together, probably filmed over a period of around 4-5 hours. The Japanese carpenters are very precise and each part actually went together and was taken apart again several times until they were satisfied with the fit.”
Japanese tea house construction from Nicola Wood on Vimeo.
“It is difficult to estimate how long it took to prepare the timbers, but it was made entirely from trees that were felled on the worksite and converted using hand tools. The Japanese carpenters had done quite a bit of background work before we got there and then a mixed Japanese / European group of 15-20 people spent a solid seven days of work on it before this final construction.”
Robin found this at: https://nicolawood.typepad.co.uk/kesurokai/2010/09/tea-house-construction-video.html#
We just got a wonderful email from builder Robin Wood, of Edale, Derbeyshire, UK. Robin makes countryside furniture and other wooden items.
“Robin’s latest piece is a wooden footbridge, carved from a naturally-curved sweet chestnut tree growing just 200 yards from the site.
This beautiful bridge is in a special location; it is easily accessible but as you cross over it you come out onto open moorland and get a real sense of entering a wild and beautiful place.”
More links from Robin to follow.
robin-wood.co.uk
I shot a bunch of photos around our house for my talk at the solar energy festival last weekend, but there was no electrical hookup, so I’ll post a few here now and then. I’ve made a number of tables out of used 2″ Douglas Fir floor joists. We eat meals at this table, and look out at the constantly-changing bird world on the ground, in the bushes, at the finch feeder, bathing in the bird bath.
Our friend Yogan just sent us this link to photos of a number of his projects in France: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=856784&id=1127561109
Yogan’s website: https://yocharpentier.ifrance.com
SHELTER from Jason Sussberg on Vimeo.
In April, Jason Sussberg, a documentary film graduate student at Stanford, along with friends, made a 6-minute film of us and our home. They shot the film in 16mm film — pretty unusual nowadays. I asked Jason why film, and he replied:
“It was shot on 16mm color celluloid and telecined (scanned/color-corrected digitally) and edited in a Final Cut Pro (a non-linear editing software). The 16mm color film fits the subject and architecture quite well– both filmmaking and DIY homebuilding are beautiful artisanal crafts that are fighting for survival in a changing world. Film just looks better– better colors, textures, motion interpolating and feeling!”
It has been shown at the Chicago International REEL Shorts Film Fest, San Francisco Documentary Festival, Big Sky Film Festival, Cinequest Film Festival and Nevada City Film Festival.
SolFest got so popular that it was too large for the small town of Hopland. It was cancelled in 2009, but is back on this year at The Redwood Empire Fairgrounds in Ukiah, Calif. Info: https://www.solfest.org/
Professional book packagers would be aghast at the way I put together a book. Assemble material (photos and text) for over a year, store in file folders, then at certain point pull best material out and begin laying out a spread — 2 pp. at a time. Random, no order. No plan or outline, no idea how things will fit together; just here the requirement that shelters be under 500 sq. ft.
It’s a wild mix so far — about 40 pages roughed out — and the book has now got its first trace of a mojo workin.
Book starting to run through my mind all the time. I’ve read how novelists get into a thing where they (authors) are just transmitting what their characters are telling them. Or maybe it’s muses at work. It feels a bit like that now, a natural process, a seed growing. Exciting! This is the best part of my job, watching all this unfold.
Read More …
Great website Lew discovered, with tons of info: making bows and arrows, atlatls, flutes, a dugout canoe hollowed out from a redwood log, tanning hides, building an Ohlone tule house (San Francisco Bay tribe). Scroll down on right side to see all the subjects. https://www.primitiveways.com/
Bob Gagnier has sent me a bunch of good info over the past year. The latest:
Dear Lloyd,
I am sure you have heard of the Internet Archive. I send this to you on the odd chance that you have not. The site is a treasure trove of old books, movies, music, etc., all in the public domain. A link to the site is here:
https://www.archive.org/
Read More …
