ARTS: Art and Craft

[Kotei]

Hello everyone,

the borders between art and craft are quite flexible and imho the result of a personal definition.

Last year, there was a thread where we were sharing the things we did with our hands:
https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...-metal-ink-etc

I promised to show the wooden canoe, I was building at that time, when it's done.

The build was delayed because of the cold winter and spring an my unheated workshop.
Some weeks of sanding and fairing and sanding and laminating and sanding and varnishing and sanding and varnishing and sanding - did I mention sanding? - I was finally able to make a first trip on a natural small river.
A great opportunity for Samu-ing the moment, this sanding business.

canoe1.jpg canoe2.jpg canoe3.jpg

Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

[Hōkan]

It looks amazing!

Sat

[Kokuu]

Wow, Kotei! That is amazing work!

How did it feel to take the first trip out?

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday/lah-

[Bokugan]

Beautiful, Kotei! Is this the same project you were working on during the samu session you hosted at the last Rohatsu retreat?

My spouse and I love kayaking and canoeing.

I cannot imagine how much time went into this!

Gassho,

Ryan
SatToday

[Bion]

It is finished!! That is spectacular! be safe while enjoying it!

SatToday

[Seikan]

Kotei,

That is simply stunning! How does it handle in the water?

Gassho,
Seikan

-stlah-

[Jundo]

I am coming one day for a ride.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Naiko]

That’s a work of art!
Gassho,
Naiko
st

[Kotei]

Thank you so much for your kind words, everyone.

Kokuu,
I was quite excited, not knowing how stable it will be and Barbara and I decided to test it on a mostly natural, shallow river that is flowing through a mostly untouched valley not far from the city.
It was a hot day, but the light breeze on the water and the shadows from the large trees were very refreshing.
Maneuvering through fallen willow trees, still growing in the river, we found sunny spots where you could see the underwater plants moving in the clear water
and innumerable extremely beautiful dragonflies (calopteryx virgo "Beautiful Demoiselle") mating and laying eggs where the plants surface and reach for the sun.
All colors between the darkest metallic blue to a powerful metallic green, the wings completely colored, these dragonflies might well have been the source of stories about little magic beings you meet in enchanted river-valleys ;-).
The phone with it's camera was stored away in a watertight ziplock bag inside a watertight container... We expected to take an unintended bath ;-).
We decided to leave the cam inside that bag, experiencing these wonderful moments instead of moving technology handling in-between, creating a distance.
We met a few people along the way and most of them left some friendly words about the 'beautiful canoe'... So a bit of maker-pride might have been included, too.

Ryan,
yes it's the one from the Samu session. I've had to pause after Rohatsu, because it was too cold in the workshop for the resin to cure.

Seikan,
it is still a semi-stable form with it's nearly flat bottom in the middle, but it gets quite shaky when tilted beyond a certain point.
Sitting more ON, than IN the water, I think the stability would benefit from more load like used on longer trips.
It's very fast and easily steerable and good for shallow rivers with its low depth of flotation, but on the downside, you have to work very hard against the wind-drift when on open surfaces.
The lines are based on a 1929 model of the Canadian company "Canoe Co. Peterborough" and back then, you could order a version with a small keel against that wind-drift. I think I will build a detachable keel and a set of optimized paddles for that purpose.

Deep bows,
Kotei sat/lah today.

[Tosei]

Simply beautiful.

Gassho.

satlah