THE TREETOPS STUDIOS - SAANICHTON

The Workshop at The Treetops Studios

Step right in. When the shop is not in use I leave anything dangerous unplugged. The dust covers are off so you can see it all. Rust and dust are the twin devils in a shop like this. Some tools in here go back over a century. Cleaning and routine maintenance are a fact of life. There is more to the workshop than just this area. I have indoor storage for about twenty cubic feet of carving blanks and covered outdoor storage for about a thousand board feet of rough lumber.

Dad designed the downhill level of the house from a model with a large family room, three bedrooms, a washroom and lots of storage. But he always intended this room as his shop. The walls are finished but sheathed over with a protective particle board layer. There is an exhaust fan, lots of extra lighting, smoke detection, fire extinguishers at both ends of the shop and 15 pairs of plugs, including a 220-volt service. It's only 11 by 19 feet and the wrong shape to take a nice picture but it's not crowded. The drill press and the lathe stay in one place along the wall. The tablesaw, bandsaw and the grinding and polishing stations are on wheels and roll out of the way when not in use. Everything else is on shelves or in cupboards.    Top

That leaves pride of place, in the middle of the shop and in the best light, to the carving bench. I suspect that most serious carvers make their own carving benches. This is my third version. The top is just over two feet by four feet across and three inches thick. There are large vices on one side and the far end, towards the window in this photo. The top is bored through with 3/4 inch holes for mounting workpieces. You can just see an assortment of the mounting jigs on the rack under the window. The horizontal slats running across the face of the base of the bench towards you are the fronts of shallow trays that slide both ways through the full length of the bench. The planes are in the bottom tray, heavier chisels and gouges above them, lighter chisels and gouges above that again and measuring and marking tools in the upper tray. They are all close at hand and, since they weigh over a hundred pounds, they ballast the whole bench to keep it from jumping around when I am carving with a mallet.    Top

The workshop is more than just a 'boy's toys' place or an old tools museum. It is the factory for the rest of the Studio. Much of the work in the shop has been given over to setting up and maintaining Elaine's fabric arts side of the Studio. We have evolved a 'Studio Style' in cabinetry: local woods, robust construction, robust finishes, multi-use. For instance, the combined media storage cabinet and steaming/blocking table on the left above is conceptually similar to the carving bench. The sliding trays hold most of my paper stock. The four inch thick biscuit on top is several thicknesses of fine foam board wrapped in the preprinted cloth grid that Elaine uses to steam and block knitted fabric. My painter's corner gets some support too. The image on the right shows how some of my father's metal working shop gets pressed into service. Here the largest lathe is trimming soapstone in preparation for carving the Studio seal stones.    Top

At any given time, Elaine and I are active supporters of a dozen or more local charitable and artistic societies. With one of the most versatile private workshops in the area I get lots of requests for assistance. There are far more requests than we can accept, but where we do participate it is strictly on an 'at cost' basis. One of the most satisfying projects involves the production of one hundred 'Stewardship' signs for the Hagan Creek Restoration Project - the creek that runs down in the trees at the back of our property. The first 25 used silkscreened reproductions of a design by Charles Elliott, the most prominent First Nations carver in our area. John produced the weatherproof (Well, ten years in the weather.) sign blanks, contracted out for the main decal and the cut vinyl lettering, and then assembled the signs in the Studio.    Top

Contact Us

Elaine Dendy e-laine@shaw.ca
John Oliver Dendy dendy@islandnet.com
URL: http://www.treetops-studios.com/index.htm

Copyrights for the entire site
(unless otherwise stated in the page source code):
Text and Photography - © 2001-7 John Oliver Dendy
Design and Art - © 2001-7 John & Elaine Dendy
Web Layout - © 2001-7 John Oliver Dendy
Revised 22 June, 2007