Anniversary Evergreen Tree

On December 6th, 2008 I married the love of my life, Jennifer Petrone. When planning our wedding we did many things ourselves to save money and to reduce our impact on our wedding. One aspect which was one of the most important was the tree seedlings that we gave as gifts to everyone that attended. The trees were Norway spruce. We believed that by giving out trees, if they were planted properly and survived to live a full life, then they would take in or use all of the carbon that we made from travel and all other aspects of our wedding. It was one of the most meaningful gifts that had an underlying purpose. Well, December 6th, 2013 was out 5th anniversary and the traditional gift was “wood.” Perfect!

I decided to make my wife a piece of art that we could display in our own home. Many times our art is a revolving door of stuff that I’ve made and is for sale. This is a piece that won’t be going anywhere! I made a two dimensional evergreen tree out of reclaimed game birds crates that had a green paint on it. I first sketched out the tree shape and size on paper then cut it out. I placed the paper on a table and used it to help find the right size piece for the “puzzle.” At the same time I made the frame from reclaimed western red cedar, stained and finished it with linseed oil. The backer boards are a nice tongue and groove cedar slats I found on the side of a road in Medford. After assembling the frame and backer board then I started to cut and glue down the small green wood pieces to form the tree. The last piece to install on it was the trunk, the foundation for any living tree!