Arts Profile

FUNCTIONAL FURNITURE FROM THE SEA
by Jan DeGrass
(Balanced Life, November 2003)

Will Cummer

Sunset is a good time to meet Gibsons' woodworker Will Cummer rambling the beaches of the Sunshine Coast. Imagine a Calgary man, from the land of prairie and mountain, moving to the Coast in 1995 to live by the ocean for the first time. In Calgary, Will was primarily a sign maker and designer of fine wooden crafts, though he had tried his hand at furniture construction. When he moved to Gibsons, flat broke and seeking a new direction, he became intrigued by what he perceived as free wood lying around on the beach for any woodworker to use. Not only free, but it came in so many interesting shapes, forms and textures. Something else tugged at his artistic imagination.

"Secret things are exposed on the beach," he says. "We don't usually see the roots of a tree. It was like seeing a tree without its clothes on."

He started to collect the surf-polished trunks, worm-eaten branches and root structures-all the materials that a professional log salvor would not want--and to experiment with forming them in to furniture.

The first item he ever made from driftwood was a pedestal table that sold immediately to a Gibsons resident. "It was made from a root. I've looked ever since for that shape, but haven't found it."

Beachcombing became an adventure. He found himself always searching for that perfect piece.

"You can put in your order from the ocean, but it's not at all concerned with a delivery schedule," he laughs. Sometimes, the storms wash in a spectacular piece, an artwork in itself, but usually he must trim and fashion the various woods: red and yellow cedar, alder, fir, hemlock, even maple, the scraps of the forest industry or trees toppled from eroding banks. He became familiar with the various species, learning, for example, that the ocean's brine could pickle wood to preserve it, and that a tiny sea worm, the teredo, bores interesting tunnels in wood, and that cedar weathers to an attractive metallic grey.

He searched for sea worn planks, branches with character--curves, bumps, kinks--to serve as legs, arches that could form the top of a loveseat, small trees that could be cut away in slabs to form chair backs or arms. He built without any real knowledge of the medium but enough woodworking skill to follow some basic rules. First, he chipped away with hand tools; later, he found power tools helped him along. But he prefers to take a quieter Swede saw to the beach for hand-cutting and only take away those pieces he can carry.

As he fashioned his first driftwood loveseat and chair, and sold them immediately, an artistic ethic emerged. "I decided right off that I'd make something comfortable, that could be used as a seat rather than a conversation piece."

Will sits on every bench he makes, reads a book for a while, relaxes, shaves a bit off here and there, tries it again. "I want to use this furniture in our everyday lives…and make it beautiful."

After years of beachcombing, he amassed a collection of twiddly, funky bits of wood, not big enough for furniture. He decided to use them in decorating an item of his own design, the "beach bank," consisting of two vertical panes of glass held by a wooden frame to form a box suitable for holding those tiny beach treasures. They sell well.

Although chairs and loveseats are his favourite projects, he also makes garden gates, arbours, and trellises. Often they are decorated with used hardware, beach rope or "log dogs," a circular iron loop with a spike. His latest creative idea is to add hand carving and colour.

For the past two years, Will has taught driftwood furniture techniques during the local Fibre Arts Festival. Next February, he will offer courses in furniture making allowing participants to apprentice for a one-day class or experience a hands-on, two-day demonstration class. Because students like to make their own piece of furniture, he has plans to offer a third workshop in which couples can come for a three-day course, build their own piece, and take it home. He will show his work this Christmas season at the Woods Store in Sunnycrest Mall in Gibsons. His fine wooden crafts are also for sale at Vancouver's Granville Island Wood Co-op store. For more on courses or outlets, call Will at 604-885-8258 or e-mail to willofthewoods@dccnet.com..