Tiling A Special Space at the Durso Household

I recently had an extraordinary oppurtunity to be a very small part of a quite special project- a very creative remodeling of the master bathroom at the home of a very special family, Scott and Amy Durso, who live with their two charming sons, and a loveable cat, and a hyper dog, in a beatiful log palace down in the Moncure wood.

I mention this here in this blog, for a number of reasons. Firstly I do see the work as a part of my on going investigation into working with Earthen Materials. And this shower, happens to be very much, of the earthen elements, notably, earth and water, as you shall see...
Furthermore, I found myself on the job thanks to Janice Rieves, whom I have lately been assisting on landscape jobs. This was to be my first tile job with Janice, something that I have been begging her to teach me since we have been working together, and I thought is was worth mentioning, as Janice has long been bringing earthen elements INTO her clients homes...and very effectively, I might add.

This was in fact not my first tile job- when I was in high school, I worked for a fellow, Bob Mason, who did bathroom and kitchen remodels. He gave me enough time on the wet saw to 'master' it (in his words), which I was always proud of. Since then, in college, I persued work in the tile trade, but was not successful in landing any work. So I was thrilled to finally get my hands back in this medium, at long last.

One of the things that made this project so special, to Amy and Scott, and to all of the rest of us involved, is that it was a collaborative effort of several local craftspeople, all shuffling in and out behind one another, like jacks, queens, kings and aces in a deck of cards (I would be the Jack, if!)

Besides the venerable Janice Reives

(with I as her humble and faithful assistant), installing shower artistry,

Across the isle, we had none other than Diane Swan, installing a set of her exquisite wooden counters and cabinets (with my bandmate Scotty Young acting as her faithful assistant, as ussual).

(When I helped Diane move her table saw into her new shop space at 'the hanger',
I got a peek of what was to come!

And to get us all started in the right direction, we also head none other than local green builder Mark Marcopolis leading the remodeling/framing end of the project!


And of course we had the fine sensibilities of Scott and Amy Durso, skilled craftspeople in their own right, leading the vision of the project! They also were very involved in the designing, setting and grouting of two of the bathrooms most exciting features, a river pebble step out, and mosaic!



This was like a Chatham All Star Team! And you know, it really got me to a thinkin'.....

So cool to be working with/for awesome friends.

Janice- "I feel like I died and went to Chatham County. So true, Janice, SO TRUE.

And so we got to work!
My Station


My duty on this job, was essentially to make the various cuts in the tile that Janis needed to make everything fit together right.

Perhaps now is a good time to illuminate a little bit of what makes the tile trade a trying and tricky one...
You see, when tiles come to in a box, they are all caste in a mold, or cut by a lazer, and are quite reliably perfectly square. Much more square than you make, say a shower stall in house that was built by folks a long time ago, who were measuring each stud in picas.
And thusly, all of imperfections of a supposedly ‘square’ bathroom are hidden to the eye, UNTIL the guy comes along whose job it is to turn the place into 3D graph paper. Then, that guy, or gal, has got problems!
So, much as landscaping's challenges lie in reconciling the desires of mother nature with the desires of wo/man, tile setting is often very much about reconciling the perfectly square, with the not perfectly square, and, like landscaping, this requires a real nose for negotiating.

So anyways, Janice would do her best to negotiate these differences, and then order up the cuts to me, who would try to grind them into shape as faithfully as I could.

TRIUMPH
OK, this is a little bit of bragging here, but..
One of my major (well ok, small) triumphs of this project was the installation of the soap dish in the shower. I know this may sound petty, but due to the ideal height of the soap dish, and the chance location of edges of the tiles in that corner, this involved carving precise cups out of the corners of four different tiles, so that when all placed together in the corner, they would each together grasp a bumpout flange which sat behind the soap dish. Thus, each of these cavity's had to be cut with the utmost precision.

Well, Janice told me that we would probably need to find a stick or something, to prop the dish up on, as the glue dried, and one of these I fashioned from a strip of left-over backer board. Yet, when the time came to prop it up, lo and behold, the dish did not need such a thing...

The Immaculate Soap Dish

Standing in Awe of the Immaculate Soap Dish

The adulation of the Immaculate Soap Dish

Here am I, looking very smug.

"Alright, get back to work kid. What do think this? A fricken' nativity scene?"

PERKS
One of the many perks of working on this project, (aside from great clients, great co-workers, beautiful and comfortable settings, and a several darn good lunches), was the occaisonal, but persistant bobbing in and out of two twin boys, Cowen, and Onner, I mean Owen and Conner.
















These two guys were a steady steram of friendship, and Art!

Look what I made! Do you like it?

Future, pebbles, mosaic!

Training Center Gardening

Today I was introduced by Janice to a very special place, and that the Training Center.
Here, in a majestic swath of forest, a visionary team building technician has created a playground, a ropes course, a labratory for building teams.

As soon as you arrive, you know that this is a special place, and alot of this, it seems, can be attributed to the landscaping, which the owner has invested in judiciously.

For the past 6 years, Janice has been contributing to this vision. She has planted large hedges of mixed plantings, installed a water fountain feature. She has even become very involved in the operations of the training center, strapping in terrified office works, belaying them down from harrowing heights, and helping them overcome fears they didn't know they had, and do things that they were sure they couldn't do.

Janice must find a balance there, of the emotionally charged work that happens there, and the peaceful surroundings that she helps to create.

Today, we were doing some maintanance of these beds, namely weeding chick-weed.

Siler City Central Park Project is granted $15,000 of seed money through NC STEP!

This Monday night, at a Siler City Town Council Meeting, delegates from Siler City’s NC STEP Leadership Team presented our proposal to the Town Council. The proposal outlined a number of proposed projects which could utilize the $100,000 STEP Grant awarded to Siler City last April.

Among these many visionary, practical, well derived, and inspired projects, was the Siler City Central Park project proposal to transform the vacant lot (1.5 acre) behind the NC Arts Incubator into a downtown ‘Central Park’, to be utilized and enjoyed by locals and visitors to Siler City alike.

Original Vision

My original intension for this park was to preserve the space as an open natural space.

I have always found the space to be special. Its is sort of washed out looking, but has a small stream running through it, and I've have always felt possessed a certain idylic calm, and charm.

Over the years, I had occasionally discussed the idea with adjoining Courtyard Cafe Owner, Joan Underwood (also a landscaper), who had expressed interest in the idea of developing it as a green space. I had also discussed the idea with local Artist and Activist, Roger Person, and last year, Roger invited me to join the discussion/process with NC STEP, seeing it as chance to possibly make a proposal.

Developing Vision
I have spent many an evening, leaning against the concrete footings of the old gas tank, watching the sun set over that field.
But I realized that now was time for action, a window of oppurtunity.

So afternoon, before an NC STEP meeting, I took a few hours to pace the field out, and  drew up a plan.

Added Market Shelter/pav.

List key features- Market oriented inwards towards space.

Containment. Restoration of creek.

The team.

I have assembled an awesome team.

Dan Sundberg, a Landscape Architect, and Builder of Parks, through his company, United Biospheres.

Murial Eylers- Market Manager of the Siler City Farmer’s Market

Ann Bass- Director of the NC Arts Incubator, and a Landscape Architect

Joan Underwood- Owner of the Courtyard Café, Landscaper/Horticulturist

Roger Person- Interdisciplinary Artist, Gallerist, Activist

Pam Hawe- Systems Analyst

Diana Hales- Retired Publicist
Zoanne Adams- Chair of Siler City Merchants Association

We have since been joined by:
Donald Dones, Parks Superintendant
Sue Szary, Fiber Artist and Community Organizer 

Some Supporting Cast Members

Paul Horne Park Planner for the Town of Pittsboro

Amanda Sands- Soil and Water

Gabriel Soltren- Urban Planner, Film Maker

Project Embraced by NC STEP Leadership Team

At a certain point in NC STEP process, we had to decide as a group which of the many projects we were to move forward with. So we voted on which projects would receive how much of the funding they were requesting. Though I wasn't able to attend the meeting where we voted, we were quite encouraged to learn that of about 30 proposed projects, the Siler City Central Park project received the most votes, putting it at the top of the list for funding!

VICTORY!
Somewhat Miraculously, on Monday, the Siler City Town Board unanimously agreed to support our entire proposal! They said that they were grateful for what we were doing for the community! It was really nice to know that they appreciate what we at the Leadership Team are doing, and that we have their support!

Now, with the Town Council's blessings, we are moving forward to turn this dream of a park into a reality! 

Learning Curves: Laying A Forking River Of Pavers

Well, it has been another glorious week spent working as an assistant to Sculptor / Tile Mosaic Artist / Landscaper / Gardener, Janice Rieves. And I believe this week she employed all of these particular super powers on this job (though not all of those that she keeps).

This was actually a first time for us both laying cast concrete pavers! It was to be a challenging learning experience for us, but ultimately, a very rewarding one...


By the time I arrived on the scence, (back from helping the Scrap Exchange move the last of their treasures out of the collapsing Liberty Warehouse), Janice, with the help of some other masons, had already traced the course of the path/s, excavated it, and filled in the cavity with a base of rough gravel.
I couldn't have arrived at a better time!

Not so fast! My first task was to finnish out the french drain, that the previous workers had begun by roughing out.

I actually enjoy this work quite a bit. When I was a kid growing up in the woods of Carolina Friends School, a major recess obsession was building dams in the creek. Of course, the really fun part about building dams, is releasing the flow of water through the stream; watching it ooze and course down the bobsled shoot of its bed.

Assuring this consistant drop in elevation is not always an easy feet!



But it is very satisfying once you obtain it.

Then, to commemorate this (and keep the way free), we dropped into this pit a writhing black serpent to gaurd its course..

Snaky Black Line

A Convergence

and then tied it in to the main drainage line that circumvents the perimeter of the house.

Then we filled it up with Gravel.

The result, a ravine, running parallel to the 'road', beautiful in its own right.

Ravine

Now, drainage in place, we moved on to the really juicy stuff..



This was exciting project for me personally, because, aside from getting to work more with Janice, for more great clients; laying uniform depth pavers (as apposed to natural rock stepping stones) is something that I have always thirsted to try. There is something about the process of 'screeing', or creating a smooth base of fine gravel (on which to lay the pavers), which has always appealed to some part of me (probably the obsessive German part..). So it was very satisfying to finally get the chance to try my hand at this. (though I have done some similar work with cobble stones, which are not as regular or smooth).
It was every bit as fun as I had imagined.


On the other hand, I think Janice and I were also both a little bit reserved and suspicious about these concrete pavers. Would they look too artificial?

Well, the truth is, they do have a quite different feel than the more naturally random shaped chunks of stone I think we both are used to working with.

However, that said, these pavers, in their uniformity, do have their own virtue, of cohesity, a unique capacity for tightness. And of course this knack for the grid can easily lend itself to very rectalinear designs, which have their place, and can be interesting in their own right.

However, if you know Janice Reives at all, you know that, while she is capable of this kind of stitchery, this is really not Janice's style at all.

And so it seemed that she was determined to push them beyond this 'one-liner' mode, into something, paradoxicaly, more flowing...

And I think, in the course of working with them, we both came to recognize,  the potential for grace and dance in a stucato rhythmic river of such 'stones'.

Projecting Super Path Paving Powers

Of course, we had to overcome some steep 'learning curves' in working with this material.

Abstraction

But by and by, I think we came to develope ways to speak, and create with these tools, perhaps even learning curves in a new way....

I think Janice and I discovered something this time around.
And that is that we both share an intuitive sense of line.
And when we have found/devined/struck upon the 'right' line, we found, with some suprise, that miraculously, we both can recognize it/feel it.
I think this was kind of a revelation to us both, that the other could recognize the harmonic resonance of a curve, that just felt just right, in our bodies.

Now thats my kind of learning curve.

A Convergence

How this works is a mystery to us both, but perhaps is something worth exploring in the future.

Edible Forest Permaculture Workshop @ Blue Heron Farm

This December, My good friend, Perrin Heartway, got together with some of his like minded neighbors at Blue Heron Farm, and decided to convert the emtpy meadow behind his house into a forest! But not just any forest. An Edible Forest...

And to do this, he enlisted the help of anyone willing and interested!
First, he, and local BHF Herbalist Tony Mayor selected plants that could feed humans.
Meanwhile, local BHF Illustrator Extraordinaire Stacye Leanza whipped up a knock out poster summon the army!
(This poster yours truly posted around). To this call, 30 Permaculturists answered!

And so it was, that on a crisp winters morning, 30 strangers converged at Blue Heron Farm.
As we each arrived, Long Time Blue Heron Barbara Lorie, seeted, greeted us, and commanded us to park our cars in the meadow, and park our potluck dishes at the Eriksons'. I don't know about you, but I do as Barbara tells me.

 Once we had duely deposisted our dishes, we trickled into the ever-cozy abode of Bruce and Sue Saunders, where hearty smells filled the air.

Breakfast Is Served!

There Bruce and Sue, were cooking up a pan cake storm!

Kiss The Cooks!
 (Bruce and Sue Saunders worked all morning to
refine the recipe, and make bitter acorns into pancakes.
The result, absolutely DELICIOUS! 

A Satisfied Customer: Jasper

Next, We all gathered in the space that Bruce and Sue have created to play music in (where I should be right now, at band practice, incidentally).

There, Perrin led us through the days activities, with Co-organizers Tony Mayor and Murray chiming in as needed.

Pre-Workshop Discussion led by Perrin Heartway

CHARGE!
Then we marched up to this empty meadow, where Perrin had layed out our weapons for waging forage, for man and animal alike.

Earth-Moving Equipment

ADULTS AT WORK

Horticulturalist / Herbalist Tony Mayor surveys his materials

And Then, my friends, we got down to business..

Some made stakes

Others Shoveled Leaf Mulch

Some of us Shlepped

Eric Yablon, Laborer In Time

Youth and Work

ADULTS AT PLAY!

Adults At Play

Adult At Play 2

At the edge of the split

Gotcha! Adult At Play 3

Trying to breed Wheel Burrows
(unsuccessfully, stubborn things)

ACCOMPLISHMENT!

As Perrin well said:

Someday, our children's children might know this field as a forest, 

and enjoy the sweet fruits of our sweet labor.

Blue Heron Fence Building