The Bluenose Schooner entrance project includes driveway gates and a pedestrian gate, all made of reclaimed and locally salvaged red cedar driftwood. The client is a boat captan who lives on Schooner Way, here on Pender Island. He naturally wanted me to carve the iconic Canadian Bluenose Schooner (as you will see on the dime) into his gates, a perfect fit. He is also building a tall fence around the property (not yet complete in these photos) so wanted the gates to be 8′ tall to match with the fencing. I have a hard time with straight lines and was able to put a gentle curve into the gates to create a difference to the eye from the road. The gate frames are made with 
mortise and tenon joinery, glued and pegged. The pickets (or grapestakes as they are traditionally called) are all handsplit cedar as well, screwed to the gate frame on the front. Then I carved the ship and the trees into the gates, and painted them with OneShot sign paint. The posts are milled cedar to match the fencing, but we put driftwood pieces on top as beams (even carved the address into the cedar driftwood).
Eventually all the wood will turn a lovely silver colour in the sun, but you will still see the design standing out. The gates all have custom forged hinges, and the pedestrian gate has a hand forged latch/catch designed by me, and made by Jeri Sparshu of ThistleRockForge on Salt Spring Island. These driveway gates will soon also have electric automatic openers, powered by solar panels which I will write about once we get them installed…
