Pearson Memorial Bench

I was recently commissioned to build a memorial bench for a couple who were heavily involved in the building of our local community hall on Pender Island.   This bench, like all of my work, is made from all salvaged and reclaimed red cedar driftwood that I split by hand.  I like to leave sections of the wood as I find it on the beach with the natually worn and silver colour exposed in places as a contrast to the smooth and finished red and orange tones of the bench.  On this bench I left the sides of the four posts that face out with their natural driftwood silver colour.

All the joinery in the bench is mortise and tenon glued with an outdoor expanding polyurethane glue to help fill any spaces in the hand chiselled mortises.  I now also use a FESTOOL domino joiner to make floating tenons in machine mortises which are tight and strong, and faster than hand chiselling!  I was asked to design the lettering with a phrase and carve it into the back of the bench.  I came up with a nice design with spirals at either end containing the lettering.  I carved this into the back of the bench and painted it with OneShot sign paint.  The bench is finished with OSMO exterior finish, which has UV and mold inhibitors, and an environmentally safe stamp.  The bench now lives under a tree at the community hall.  I drilled holes in some thinner stones and screwed them to the bottoms of the bench legs to keep the wood off the ground.  This bench should last a long time and serve our local community well.