Scrappy Wee Lassie
The Scrappy Wee Lassie is a part of the Albuquerque Museum's permanent collection.
I built this boat many years ago and often wish I could take it out for a paddle again. It ended up being far lighter than I had anticipated making portages a joy and the narrow beam width allowed for the use of either double or single bladed paddles.
The design was based on a boat built in the late 1800's by J. Henry Rushton. I built it entirely out of scrap wood; it was made up of several hundred pieces of hardwood (15 different species in total) that I had collected over the course of a few years from various waste sites. The found wood often didn't have any square sides to work with and tapered down from about ⅜" thick to a translucently thin end that I began calling fish tails. In order to ensure equal weight distribution, the different species of wood had to be matched by weight and placed on opposing sides and ends of the boat. The canoe was then finished with an epoxy made primarily from nuts and beans.
Sea Glass Canoe
During my time in San Francisco I would spend my evenings after work walking an average 7 miles along the coast. While walking I would pick up sea glass as well as bits of plastic. Some nights, I'd become lost in my task, not noticing the rising tide. This would almost always result in me being captured by small coves; to get home, I'd have no choice but to go for a swim. I might meet a sea lion on my walk, or see a humpback whale. Sometimes the fog would come by and say hello, making it nearly impossible to find any glass at all.
The Sea Glass Canoe is being constructed from glass I’ve found while picking up trash, specifically plastic, from local beaches. Upon completion the boat will be donated to an orca conservation group and auctioned off to help support the southern resident orcas of the Puget Sound.
-Ben
Lutherie
The start of many projects since returning from Canada, where I studied lutherie sometime around 2006.