The Lone Twin Boat Project
An annoying email from Amazon the other day led to an interesting discovery – The Lone Twin Boat project . The idea was dreamt up by the Lone Twin theatre company as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. The plan was to ask people to donate pieces of wood, or things made from wood, which would then be used to build a boat ! But the special part was that each wooden object had to have some significance to the person donating it. ‘Pencil or piano, exotic as Zebrawood or as familiar as pine, every piece had a story behind it’. The boat would be a ‘seaworthy archive of stories and memories’. 1,221 people brought their wood and, if you look at the website, you will find some interesting stories.
The website also has some interesting videos about the making of the 30ft vessel. Having watched the video of them sanding the hull by hand (apparently known as ‘fairing’), I vow never to complain about sanding a piece of furniture again ! The video of them turning the hull over at the end is also quite impressive.
Incorporating the donated items into the hull was done using the West System – an epoxy adhesive which is being used increasingly in furniture-making to create strong slender joints. I’m actually using it at the moment on a chair that I’m making for the forthcoming exhibition at the Cube gallery in Manchester (May 15 – 25).
The finished boat, named ‘Collective Spirit’, was launched a year ago and has since completed her maiden voyage, taking everybody’s old bits of wood and memories with it. What a nice idea !
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Thankyou, Chris.
