In 2024 I spent a few weeks at Lookout Arts Quarry doing a residency with the same constraint I’ve used in the past of making something with only readily available natural materials and those seen as waste.

I was impressed at how efficient the residents were with their resources. Almost all building materials were quickly repurposed so I didn’t have much to work with! But since this was a quarry, this left me with the obvious choice – rocks. There were also some 2×4 off-cuts available.

I set to work cleaning up an underused space that I thought was one of the prettiest on the property overlooking the lake. After a lot of weeding, I built a bench and fairy door to welcome those who came across this magical spot.

Fun video with more information here.

Learnings:

✨ Dry stacking rocks nicely is harder than I thought!
✨ I had to work with the limitations of my small body. I would have loved to build nicer rock walls, but simply couldn’t carry the rocks I wanted to use. I also had to make the bench in several pieces and reassemble so I could carry it.
✨ I was able to apply fiber principles to wood in the use of tannins + iron for the finish. It makes sense that this would work, and now I’m excited to explore this further with dyes and wood.
✨ This bench will degrade quickly, as it’s built on earth and doesn’t have a vapor barrier. I should have filled the space with gravel instead of earth and added plastic. While it’s too bad it will get reclaimed by nature rather quickly during the wet pacific northwest weather, I’m OK with embracing the ephemeral on this one.