Clothes Line Posts = Garden Sculpture

Friday, January 07, 2011

Clothes Line Posts = Garden Sculpture

With the warm, dry weather we've been able to reduce our power company's use of coal and oil (and conserving our money for our Travel Fund) by putting a lot of laundry out on the clothesline to dry instead of using the dryer.

If you think these clothesline posts look a little odd, then obviously you've no appreciation for art.

I installed these posts after Chris heard that I had built sculptural clothesline posts for a client. She asked "When are we going to have a clothesline?"

I don't like the idea of the cobbler's children having no shoes, so I kicked the idea around awhile and created this sculptural clothesline, which I call "Spanish Dancers."

I put all the actual clothes lines on the same side of the posts so that I could position the posts at the edge of our property, between a rolled bamboo fence from Bamboo Fencer and our still-under-construction patio.

The lumber is sustainably harvested Ipe; a rot-resistant wood from South America. To keep it from turning grey in the sun, I've given it a couple of coats of Tung oil. The lines are a black cord I bought at the Army surplus store. The wooden clothespins are from a dealer who bought them in East Germany. I cut the tops, arms and notches of the posts freehand with chainsaw, circular saw, jig saw and chisel.

I've got a commission for another one that I'm going to build of locally harvested cedar and attach it to the side of a deck. It will be shaped like a conventional clothesline post, meaning a 'T' shape. But with the cords attached to glass insulators from old power lines. So it will look like an old-school power line. Kind of fitting for something that saves energy.

Below is the original sculptural clothesline post, named Clothesline Christ in homage to all the domestic goddesses who've kept our clothes smelling fresh over the millennia.