The wooden firewood holder is an outstanding post-modern deconstructionist statement: wood in one form supporting wood in another form. A cradle and its logs: one we allow to be consumed by a warming flame, the other we choose to preserve as structure. Both began as similar stands of trees. One was crudely cut and split, while its brother in arbourdom was finely hewn, shaped, and transformed to an item of utility. Each might just as easily have become the other. By what measure were these two fates determined?
Who cares? This firewood holder has a distinctive look that whispers “broken hockey sticks, used in a silly excuse for recycling.” Yes, there is that way of looking at it, but don’t you still see your elementary school art projects proudly displayed at your mom’s house even though you are now in your forties? Uphold that fine tradition. Make this firewood holder and give it to her! It is practical and has a certain oriental aesthetic.
Using my illustrations and your imagination, come up with your own plans for this handy item. So long as the side pieces are all one length, and the bottom pieces match, and the joints are sturdy, you’ll be happy with the results.
Alternatively, you could make a magazine rack. The curious similarity to the firewood holder is strictly a coincidence. You see, this magazine rack holds yet another form of wood, pulp fibre, transformed into a nearly two-dimensional sheet. Yes, it does have the same beautiful lines as the wood rack in profile, but this magazine rack also sports several dividing posts so that you can systematically move your journals and publications from the right to the centre and then to the left. An observant spouse will assume these journals are being read when you are actually practicing the ancient domestic art which the Romans called transit cumulare. I am of the species homocumulare, one who makes piles. The fastidious polar opposite is the homomunde, a “tidy person” or spouse. There is a theory among seismologists that the reason the West Coast suffers so many earthquakes is that more of the residents tend to accumulate heavy, glossy magazines. The sheer weight of these collections causes the continental shelf to fracture. You need not subject this rack to such stress since it is just made of broken hockey sticks, but a few well-chosen publications in it next to your favorite chair will enhance any domestic relaxation time.
