Balancing Toy of Forest: joining a workshop by Forest Lab

 

Actually, this year, the workshop series by the Laboratory of Forest Art started in August. I joined the first workshop, instructed by Harada Akatsuki. It was a fun. This week, I tell you my adventure of making a balancing toy with help of Harada-san. Harada Akatsuki is an artist who love to construct installations out of logs harvested in the forest. Inevitably, his workshop is to create a thing out of logs. So, the first thing to do for us was using two-men saw.

Bond (Wood Connect) :
Last year’s installation by Harada Akatsuki.

Harada-san is showing his balancing toy.

Before chainsaw became “must-have” for forestry, two-men saw was an important tool to cut large trees. Now makers of such saw can be regarded as “endangered species,” Harada-san said. The saw we used was the thing he procured from an old couple who was the last maker of such tool in a village of Niigata Prefecture 新潟県. Now they are gone, and “It’s uber difficult to find a saw-doctor who can set my two-handed saw.” Wow. It was my first experience to use two-men saw. Using it required good teamwork, of course. Also, it was good having a third person standing to evaluate the operation. Especially before the operation was on the “groove,” that person could inform sawyers if the blade is properly straight between the operators. Otherwise, saw could be stuck. “Er, Naomi, you should stand a touch more to the right…” “Yes, that’s right. Now you go.” Like that. Harada-san’s saw was well-maintained and could slice the log quite easily. Once the rhythm of sawing the log was established, it was like dancing together. A damned fun! I loved that.

Artists Ishikuro Kazuo and Yoshikawa Youichirou are
showing two-men saw.

Artist Chikada Haruna and supporters of the Lab are sawing.
In this Photo,
Yoshikawa-san is performing the third person role.

Harada-san’s design of balancing toy was to

1. First, procure a slice of log about 20cm in diameter by two-me saw.

2. Next, cut the slice in half. It became the base of the toy.

3. Third, cut a bough about 7cm in diameter for the length of your choice. It was to be a supporter of the center of the gravity of the toy.

They are boughs to be the supporter.

4. Fourth, slice the similar-sized bough and make 7 pieces of about 2cm or so thickness. Four of them became wheels attached to the base with bolts.

They are boughs to be wheels.
Compared with the boughs
for the main body of the toy,
they are slightly larger.

5. And the remaining 3 pieces were for the main body of balancing toy. Out of these 3, one was attached the fulcrum pin.

6. The rest were to be weights at the tip of arms. The arms were of piano cord. Unlike ordinary steel wires, piano cord is strong and very flexible. It could balance the toy when we play and peck the weight or the main body.

They are the boughs for weights and the centre.

The boughs are securely fastened to the workbench.
It helped us to cut the parts easily OK.

The parts Naomi acquired for the toy.

My supporter would be like this.

First, one end of the log to be a supporter is shaved by machete.

And we make a hole on the base.

The supporter is inserted into the base by a mallet.

Harada-san helped us to make a hole on a piece to be a wheel.
We secure the wheel with a bolt from this hole.

The wheels are attached to the base.

7. The position of the weights was decided by our preference. We could make the arm very long, or short. Asymmetric arm would be possible if two weights had very different heaviness. We decided the position of the weight and balanced the toy to secure the weights to the arm.

The weights and the center must have a hole
on its side for the wire to be inserted.

Like this.

And this is to make a hole for fulcrum pin.

Voila! Naomi’s Balancing Toy.

As a forest instructor, cutting pieces with saw was not difficult for me. The tricky part was to attach wires and bolts connecting the cut pieces together. Harada-san deftly helped us the process of assembly. He brought in his electric tools and told us like “For this part, a bit smaller hole is important,” or “Just a little bit of making a recess is enough. Too much of it makes the toy unstable.” Following his instructions, our balancing toy gradually obtained the “Character.” No piece is the same as the rest. Unlike artificially produced plastic poles, a bough or a log was a continuation of ever-changing parts, of surface, diameter, annual rings, etc. Each participant of the workshop created one and only balancing toy from the unique material from forest maintenance works.

This is another person’s toy.

I realized it was a unique way of having a conversation with the forest. As we proceeded to finishing up our balancing toy, the toy started to talk to us, letting us notice another dimension of a forest. This bough has such-a-such character, so we have to attach the fulcrum pin in this way. Or, is the position of the weights OK for the toy to stand stably? The weight is of Quercus myrsinifolia, but if we have cedars, will it be the same? The texture must be different … The imagination out of the forest flied around as we proceed. Making the toy was like re-realizing a friend‘s charm in a conversation. Come to think of it, it might be a process which artists in the Forest Lab experience every year when they create installation for the forest. Although I don’t have talent for being an artist, I can say this with conviction: it was fun!

We can paint it if we like.

If you have a chance to come to their workshops, the next one is on September 22 (my post last week), please try. I realized there are so many ways to talk with the forest. And it’s so thrilling.

When you find a problem in the site introduced in this post, the best contact address will be GROUP the Creation and Voice of the Woods.

https://morilab.amebaownd.com/
e-mail: morinokoe7@yahoo.co.jp

The city office which is in charge of this forest is

Office for the Park Greeneries in the North 北部公園緑地事務所

Yokohama Municipal Government Creative Environment Policy Bureau 横浜市環境創造局

Phone: 045-311-2016 

FAX: 045-316-8420