A nation of rivers

Ontario Travel

“To travel by canoe is to ponder where we came from, where we are, where we’re going, who we were, who we are and who we can be. Suspended between the world above and the world below. Stillness in harmonic motion. These are the paddles’ promises. To paddle is to plug into the energies of the place, the land, the air, the water, the ancestors, the children who are yet to be born The paddle connects us to all of that. To pull is to connect to the river itself but also to the land that nourishes. To be there, to be connected, as a mix of Canadians new and old. If it is love that binds people to places in this nation of rivers and in this river of nations, then one enduring expression of that simple truth, is surely the canoe.” – James Raffan, adventurer, acclaimed author and Director Emeritus of the Canadian Canoe Museum.

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From Timber to Tide

[Pixillion]

Vocabulary to learn after watching the video :

• Cutting firewood for the stove
• Splitting logs
• I had a good fortune to work in a cabinet-maker’s workshop on the weekends
• Scraping and sanding
• Working with wood
• Taking care and time
• Having a pride in your work
• Knowing where the material comes from
• Understanding the different natures that different woods have
• Building a wooden boat
• The great pleasure of launching her when she is finally in the sea
• Here natural environment
• Alive in the forest to being alive on the water
• With another 100 years of life ahead of her
• I wanted a boat that was strong and seaworthy
• Dry warm accommodation below
• Sail further afield
• Built with your own hands
• Having known the trees that the timber has come from to make that boat
• It feels like an extension of yourself in a way
• Like it’s your second skin
• It’s like an instrument on the water
• The closest thing you can make to an animal
• I have chosen this path in life
• A forester in Denmark
• Ran a sawmill
• Follow my passion
• I hope to be able to pass this on to others

“Ben Harris  has been working with wood throughout the UK since the age of 15. First as assistant to a cabinet maker, then he developed his skills in furniture making, and his passion for wood and forestry by working in broadleaf woodlands. Later he tuned his skills in bespoke Oak-framed carpentry and went on to establish a sawmill and oak framing business in Scotland sourcing timber from the local estates.

In 2005 Ben moved to Cornwall to study and train in boatbuilding.  He has been building boats and sailing ever since.”

Read more :  Ben Harris Boats

[Gani Naylor]

 

Designed by nature

[Great Big Story]

In the forestry hills of Big Sur, California, Jayson Fann weaves, bends and shapes eucalyptus and willow branches into incredible human-sized nests. Each of these “earthly temples” weighs in at over 100,000 pounds, often requiring heavy-duty equipment to aid in transportation and construction. Now, Fann is using his nests as an educational tool, helping students discover their ability to shape and create their environment, all the while strengthening their connection with nature.

Visit Jayson HERE

Vocabulary chunks to learn from video :

• A nest is a place where you have a sense of protection and strength
• An Earth Temple
• A Nature Temple
• Not one branch is the same
• To bring out the best of those shapes with each other
• I’m a nest builder
• An intuitive process of just gathering branches
• Building forts
• As big as one hundred thousand pounds of wood
• Gathering all the wood
• A chainsaw to cut wood
• A machete to cut off all the excess leaves
• I asses what kind of shapes I have
• Creating the foundation and the infrastructure
• I can weave in and around
• The trunk of the tree, all the way down to the very smallest twig and branch
• Transporting them across the country
• I use cranes and forklifts and different kinds of equipment
• All over the country
• An educational setting
• An educator
• Out into nature, interacting with nature
• The nest is something that can almost have grown out of the ground

 

 

Inspire me #13 – Painting on water

Artist Garip Ay performs the art of Ebru, generally known today as painting on water. The results of this process are unique and it is never possible to achieve the same design again.  Visit Garip HERE

Geometry

 

[Deep Green Sea]

Manoussos Chalkiadakis is one of Greece’s most talented ceramicists.

See more of Manousos’ work HERE

Superb Craftsmanship

    Wintergatan

 

Read more @ Wintergatan

To Live. To Create.

 [Deep Green Sea]

More info @ Lazarides Guitars