July Woodworker of the Month

JULY WOODWORKER OF THE MONTH

Stephen Maclean comes to us from Australia's East Coast
where he and Mother Nature create totally unique pieces
that he refers to as Sculptables.

On the East Coast of Austrailia, Stephen Maclean runs a tree lopping company. Mature trees that have outgrown their surrounds are harvested by Stephen's company. No tree is cut simply for it's timber value, there is always a good reason for it to be taken and none of it is wasted. To the right you will see a picture of one of these trees being worked with a chainsaw. Further down this page the work displayed is evidence of how the tree is the dictator of the size, shape and design of each table sculpted by Stephen.

All suitable logs are removed to a sawmill. At the sawmill, firewood is selected and the branches are chipped into garden mulch. The large natural shapes of branch junctions are unsuitable for standard uses but are perfect for sculptables. Onsite the large, natural wood shapes suitable for Stephen's sculptables are selected from the branch junctions. Instantly, a disposal problem becomes a one of a kind, beautiful and unique sculptured table. Just to the left, is an example of a piece of disposable timber being shaped for a remarkable sculpted table.

In the two pictures above, you see two examples of the size of timber required to create a sculptable table. As Stephen describes it "The piece needs the log diameter of 33" or more at the small end, and about 60" long, with preferably a fork or two or three". There is a two year drying time minimum before any piece of timber is ready to become a sculptable table. Stephen keeps an ongoing supply of tables drying all the time. The table to the right is camphor, the one on the left below is blackbutt, and the table to the lower right is coastal redgum. All of these three are unfinished pieces.

Just to the left are two of Stephen's finished pieces. The top piece is a dining table featuring a glass top which he very often makes a part of his designs. The lower picture features a blackbutt occasional table which is featured on Woodworkers Auction right now. These pieces are even more amazing when you consider the steps it took to bring them to this stage.
1. Design is envisaged where the tree is to be removed.
2. Tree is cut to design dimension and crane trucked to the studio.
3. Design process begins with paralelling the top with the leg height.
4. Next, the rough sculpting of the interior and exterior
5. Excess material is removed by fine shaping to style and desired weight to speed drying.
6. Storage in the studio up to two years to dry.
7. Sanding process after bolt tensioning and other splitting and cracks are addressed.
8. Finish sanding (up to 600 grit) and cover with selected finish.

The mission statement posted on Stephen's website summarizes everything you've seen above, "Our hope is to create truely
genesis pieces of indestructible functionable furniture, and to see the wood of our urban forest beautified by our creative
sculptured designs". You can purchase some of Stephen's pieces from Woodworkers Auction or visit his website located
at http://www3.turboweb.net.au/~sculptbl or send him email at sculptbl@turboweb.net.au .

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