Modern Reclamation Realized
While all of my work incorporates the principles of Modern Reclamation here is a recent reflection on my latest commission.
This piece was born from trees which once stood hundreds of years ago. They were felled and hand hewn into timbers by axe and hand, blood and sweat, by men and women who rose before dawn with reverence and purpose. In a time when necessity dictated deeds not desires. And a need would bring a community together to raise a barn which would serve a family for generations.
This is the story of these timbers, but as with most things of this world, a time came when they were no longer needed in this way. So they were thoughtfully disassembled and rescued by one inspired man. He preserved them until their potential could be realized once again. Seasons came, years passed, and serendipitously our paths crossed. Sometimes life works out just like you want it to, right when you need it to.
On a blustery cold Wisconsin winter morning in knee high snow, armed with a sense of humor and determination we pulled the necessary material from a much larger sea of beams.
Before they entered my shop it took countless hours with hammer and chisel, torch and brush to free all the layers of ice and frozen mud that clung to them.
They were then loaded into my kiln to acclimate until their internal temperatures naturally rose to match my shop’s. From there they spent many weeks in a slow drying cycle and ultimately a heat sterilization. This was when I built the steel frame which is made up of 5 separate knockdown components all locked together with tapped mortise and tenon joints.
Once the beams were ready to be worked I resawed them with my Alaskan chainsaw mill. It took some craft sorcery to stabilize andkvc assure their lasting fun , but diligence always helps manifest such results. We do what we must! In this instance the “must” was a plethora of shouldered sliding dovetail battens. Along with all kinds of other “musts” that added up to 300 project hours.
The character this piece exudes was brought to life directly through the process and intention of Modern Reclamation. These beams have now been raised once again to serve and to provide generational value, all while carrying forward a unique narrative legacy intertwined in both the modern and the past.
Urban Wood Collective
Reclaimed Timbers & Materials
Reclaimed Timbers & Materials
Urban wood has a story, these trees once stood in our yards and our communities. The UrbanWood Collective (UWC) is the brainchild of Joseph La Macchia and was founded in 2010.
Joseph has been salvaging materials since the mid 90‘s when he built his first piece of furniture, a queen sized headboard from old kiwi crates.
As Joseph’s focus
Urban wood has a story, these trees once stood in our yards and our communities. The UrbanWood Collective (UWC) is the brainchild of Joseph La Macchia and was founded in 2010.
Joseph has been salvaging materials since the mid 90‘s when he built his first piece of furniture, a queen sized headboard from old kiwi crates.
As Joseph’s focus in furniture grew so did his desire to use materials that had origin stories. He wanted to meld both his passion of saving things and making things, into a mutually beneficial relationship.
A chance encounter and discussion with a local arborist turned into the idea of saving these often wasted urban trees from the landfill. The next day Joseph saved his first urban tree, a 150 plus year old claro walnut from Berkeley, CA back in 2007. That was the moment when the UWC was born and Joseph's advocay for Urban wood took root.
Reclaimed Timbers & Materials
Reclaimed Timbers & Materials
Reclaimed Timbers & Materials
Modern Reclamation isn't just about saving lost trees, it's also about salvaging other resources like old growth building materials, timbers, steel, and such things that can be thoughtfully applied to the studio furniture makers lens.
If you have material you'd like to donate and save from ending up in a landfill don't hesitate to shoot us an email.
Milling & Kiln Drying
Reclaimed Timbers & Materials
Milling & Kiln Drying
Part of the Modern Reclamation process is having the equipment and relationships in place to act when a worthy tree is brought down by a storm or a myriad of other reasons outside of harvesting a tree purely for profit.
Joseph runs a Stihl MS880 on an alaskan mill with various sized bars to tackle these felled trees and save this materia
Part of the Modern Reclamation process is having the equipment and relationships in place to act when a worthy tree is brought down by a storm or a myriad of other reasons outside of harvesting a tree purely for profit.
Joseph runs a Stihl MS880 on an alaskan mill with various sized bars to tackle these felled trees and save this material. After milled the slabs are stacked and stickered to air dry for a period of time. Then he finishes off the drying process in a kiln where it is also sterilized.
In some instances he literally takes a project from where the tree originally stood, to a finished project with his own two hands.
If you have a tree that has come down or know it has to in the future please reach out. If you're curious what size tree is worth saving Joseph most often tells people to throw their arms around the trunk and if you can't touch one hand to the other then it's worth contacting him to explore it in more detail.
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