Recycled Paper Tray

Make from scratch, start with your own ideas, see them through, for better or worse.

On a tip from the employees at Fitch Lumber & Hardware, I took an afternoon drive to Storybrook Farms to visit the metal-smith Artisans who live, work, and breathe wrought iron. The farm is virtually unscathed by the current state of economy; mammoth sheets of metal lean against houses, tractors and farm equipment gleam in the dun and the men cheerfully greet me before I shut my car door. One of the men warns me, “if it lands in the scrap bin, it must truly be scrap for us not to use it.” I am allowed to help myself to their discards, all for free!  I dive in and recover treasures: a decaying, peeling sconce, a silver owl hood ornament, nails and screws, and a sort of wiry wheel.

Luck had it that I passed a pile of palettes and other wood in front of Broyhill Wiles Inc a bit more down Jones Ferry Road. I stopped, scoped out the pile then called the number on a sign posted in the yard. The man on the other end assured me the pile was not scrap, but that he was willing to share his resources with a neighbor. I took the two palettes that were cracked and otherwise weathered.

I have to plug a bit about Broyhill Wiles - the company is entirely green. They build timber homes with engineered wood, resource efficiency, energy efficiency, water efficiency, and indoor environmental quality to reduce their negative impact on the environment. And their homes are astounding in design and functionality. Please be sure to visit their website for a photo gallery and more information about their company.

Before you can reconstruct, deconstruct

I tore into the first palette with my claw, gleaning the newer yellow pine from the soggy base wood. I usually go sketch-less, so in my head I planned to make a three tiered desk shelf for the jungle of paper work on my desk. Using a small hand saw, I cut six short slats for the interior shelves and two longer ones for the legs. This wood was old and not without its share of nail holes, so many of the piece were split and jagged. This adds to the charm of the end result, but makes for interesting measurement during the process. I don’t claim to be a carpenter so, I was pretty proud when this bad boy was finished. An inlay at the base, for envelopes, and two split shelves for scrap paper and formal document stacking.

A little about our values: we spent enough time in Buffalo with recyclers like Scott Bye and Buffalo Reuse to know the importance of re-fabricating thrown off items. Not only have we built nearly every peice of furniture in our home/office for under $500 total, but we’ve also helped in community sharing, sustainability and even saved the Storybrook Artisans some gas they would have used on a trip to the junk yard.

Post by laura on 11/07
Around Town • Handmade • (1) Comments •