Sneak Peak - Donor Tree

Recently, Wayne was approached by some good friends of ours up in New Harmony about a project. The project was for something called a "donor tree"... neither of us had heard of a donor tree. After doing some research and speaking with our friends that approached us, I've found many different beautiful donor trees that people have done, from making them solely from steel or using steel and wood.

We've created an organic things from steel before, such as our tree gate we did back in 2011 (which is still my favorite piece we've done, pictured to the left and below). It was one of the first projects that I really did a lot of work with Wayne. Wayne had the concept in mind to blend modern fabrication with traditional smithing methods. The main body of the gate, which formed the tree was cut with a plasma cutter, while the leaves and locking mechanism were all hand forged. Let's be honest, if I had to hot cut 3/8 plate as big as this gate was with a chisel, hammer, and anvil... we'd still be out there cutting it 3 years later! The color scheme we did on this gate was cool, too. We used a black paint, tarnished copper green, and some other greens and grays to give it an old look and then used a gold wire brush to add a gold sheen to the leaves. Once all of the colors were applied and dried, we added a nice clear coat to keep it looking like we intended it to.

I think referring back to these ideas we used for the gate have been a extremely helpful on this current project. One of the hardest things about making something that came out of nature, which has no definite straight lines or right angles, is making that something with materials that come only in straight lines. It can be hard to replicate the asymmetrical beauty of nature, but one can get close with enough patience and creativity. This is something I think Wayne hasn't forgotten on this project or the last. It's projects like these that I'm reminded that no matter how much research I've done, how many videos I've watched, or how many knife blades and axes I've hammered out that I'm still the apprentice of the shop and this man is the true master mind that has a practicality and creatively cultivated by years of fabrication projects of the most unusual, practical, and unique stature.

For this project, we wanted the tree to represent the project. We wanted the project to be an embodiment of what trees are; life at it's greatest. Of course, there is no doubt that is why these types of donor trees came about. What better organism to represent life and giving than a tree? A tree can have a longevity that can outlive most organisms on earth, but with the smallest little bore hole made by a green bug that tree can die, lose it's leaves, and fall. Trees are such giving organisms. I could write all day about all of the things that trees give us, physically and physiologically. But I think most of you reading this should have a general comprehension of those characteristics. I think this is a good representation of what a donor should be. A donor can give so much to someone who has so little, a donor can breathe life into someone who is staring death in the face, and a donor can bring a smile to someone who hasn't smiled in a long time. Let's re-cap that. Trees represent life, trees donate things to us human beings, thus donor trees are cool.

We wanted to do something different for this one, something subtle yet striking. I was really starting to worry if we were going to be able to fulfill those expectations we had for ourselves. Then, of course, he did it again. Wayne said "I've been stewing over an idea for the last week or so. Copper behind the trunk, raised to the front through gaps of woven steel, textured to look like tree bark. What do you think?" There was only one thing I could say to a marvelous idea like that...

"I think you're on to something"

So, there it started and from the start it has blossomed to near completion. I wont show much more than this picture of the textured trunk, for I want to save the best pictures for last when it's fully completed. I was really excited at first when we were commissioned for this project... but that amount of excitement is only a fraction of what excitement I'm filled with now.