A far-reaching, loaded wooden garden gate design for main gates, with enough going on to merit repeated scrutiny. Exploring the use of laminated bent trusses and their changing relationship to natural light on acrylic rod.

Western Cedar, African wenge, acrylic rod.

Brawley, California

Approximately one year after installation, the wooden garden gate shown mounting to stump-block pillars with surface-mounted jambs. An example where the flanking columns definitely do not upstage the gate

Brawley, CA

A patient absorption beyond distraction. A rather complex undertaking that required compartmentalizing the various sections to avoid a mental overload.

Brawley, CA

The upper 1/2″ rods patterned to organ pipes. Each rod lights and diffuses one at a time with the changing angle of the sun. The process to go from the far left to the far right rod takes about 30 minutes, with all the various rods within our wooden gate design illuminating in stages.

Brawley, CA

The organ pipe rods and laminated trusses as the signature identity for wooden garden gate 200.

Brawley, CA

Showing the laminated layers of wood gate 200’s primary arched trusses, penetrated by a rod that is purposefully contorted with a heat gun prior to assembly.

Brawley, CA

African Wenge grids and splines and the stark contrast of the acrylic rods.

Brawley, CA

The diffusion of the top rods.

Brawley, CA

The wenge secondary arches drawing off the primary arched truss with the increasingly open radius of ripples in a pond.

The lower section of the wooden gate design 200 with its illusion of continuity through the primary arched trusses.

Brawley, CA

Matching Driveway Gate #200.

Brawley, CA

Basically, the same wooden gate design for both the Driveway Gates and Pedestrian Gate.

In-Progress

Truing the radius with a wooden spokeshave that’s been in Charles’ arsenal since junior high school.

Yes, the process of creating each distinctive radius can be done with patterns and flush-bearing bits . . . or it can be done by hand. And why not? If he (or she) enjoys the process and has some facility for the technique itself, a hands-on approach might be likened to a cross-country road trip, opting for the graveled county roads in lieu of the interstate . . . or worse, a plane. The interstate, and plane, will get you there quicker and avoid the mishap of being caught in the middle of nowhere as dusk arrives and no lodging in sight. But then, if you’re accustomed to traveling county roads you’ll likely be one who might engage a farmer that leads to an invitation for dinner that leads to a memorable conversation on the porch that leads to a bed that leads to a breakfast that leads to an annual Xmas card for the rest of your life.

At the De Young Museum in San Francisco with its signature ‘crack‘ meandering throughout the foyer and walkway, where each stone tile is laid out like a puzzle to extend this ‘crack’ in a linear, unbroken route.

You’re thinking Stop. Wrong. Back up. You were going so well and went too far and caint you jes leave it well enough alone?

No. Unfortunately, no. A general genetic make-up prevents such an approach to anything. Circling the wagons when yer ahead can be a good thing, if one knows when they are ahead. But it can also have you prematurely satisfied with Ohio and leaving the discovery of Illinois and Nebraska and California to someone else. Like the Donner Party, who must have wished they had circled their own wagons back in Ohio.

So, a dictum in this metaphysical turn teaches us to adopt a Westward Ho existence in all matters while balancing the perview of a potential injun attack.

Our wood gate design 200 is not an opportunity to exercise your chromosomal caution.

The Section E rods for the 20 seconds or so against the direct angle of the light. Too diffused to even photograph.

There is often more than a single project under way at any given time. An opportunity to leap from one to another and how that in itself can trigger that mental brouhaha of the forward movement mentioned above.