Purple Heart Platter- What a story.

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Bob Wemm

Bob Wemm

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Joined
Mar 9, 2012
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Location
Kalbarri, Western Australia
Hi all,
Thought that I would put this piece out for your interest.
I am a member of our local Arts & Craft group and we have an Annual Exhibition. A couple of years ago I made this platter and entered it in the Exhibition. It sold to a woodturning Instructor/teacher from Melbourne, who happened to be here on holidays. Now, I don't know if he took the piece to demonstrate "How" or "How Not" to do things with a piece of wood. But that is not the story, one afternoon a woman came into the Exhibition and spent about an hour looking around at all the pieces and kept coming back to my platter, then move on again. Suddenly she burst into tears and ran outside. Everyone present wondered what the problem was but she disappeared into her car and drove off.:confused::confused::confused:
About 8pm that night I got a phone call from the lady and she explained the situation. Seems that she is a "Tree hugger", not that I have a problem with people who love trees, as I do myself, but this one was a bit over the top. She calmed down after I assured that the timber had come from a plantation.:)
 

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Bob Wemm said:
Hi all,
Thought that I would put this piece out for your interest.
I am a member of our local Arts & Craft group and we have an Annual Exhibition. A couple of years ago I made this platter and entered it in the Exhibition. It sold to a woodturning Instructor/teacher from Melbourne, who happened to be here on holidays. Now, I don't know if he took the piece to demonstrate "How" or "How Not" to do things with a piece of wood. But that is not the story, one afternoon a woman came into the Exhibition and spent about an hour looking around at all the pieces and kept coming back to my platter, then move on again. Suddenly she burst into tears and ran outside. Everyone present wondered what the problem was but she disappeared into her car and drove off.:confused::confused::confused:
About 8pm that night I got a phone call from the lady and she explained the situation. Seems that she is a "Tree hugger", not that I have a problem with people who love trees, as I do myself, but this one was a bit over the top. She calmed down after I assured that the timber had come from a plantation.:)
Click to expand...

Oh Bob, that lady really needs a reality check in her life, I wish that I could ask her, how many "things" she is surrounded with, in her own private life, that I made from wood, where do they think the wood come from...???, vegetable gardens...??? or maybe a magic machine making wood out of horse manure...???

I'm glad that I don't get that many of those up here, or at least, they don't have the guts to confront me, I may would have to educate them to certain realities, just absolutely no time for idiots...!

I sometimes wonder, if "wood nuts" have saw dust for a brain, what would these people have, in the bone box they carry above their shoulders...??? water melons...???:eek::wink::biggrin:

Life is interesting, huh...???
 
I have a dual take on this. I have seen first hand how incomplete information and misinformation gets spread and I have also been helping to clear things up. This is a very classic example of WHY we should be making product tags that shows info about the material that we use. Some detail about the exotic wood, what it is, how it was obtained (if known) and the like. Just some basic facts on that particular material being used.

Here is what happens. More than likely she has heard and been told misleading info about exotic woods and had she seen some ID tag showing that purpleheart, among other exotic woods, is indeed a cultured wood for the industry on farms, given some info about the tree and all that then there would have been a drastic different outcome. My assumption is the multiple visits was to ensure it was indeed what she was thinking and since she saw nothing to contradict that then all the misleading info that is spread comes to life. Many/most believe that when you get exotic wood you just go strip a rain forest somewhere and sell the wood and that is the ONLY way it is acquired.

Did you know that many central/south American countries are offering businesses tax free incentives for *ALL* import/export and cultivation equipment relating to tree cultivation? Not a bad setup for a $1+ million USD per hectare industry.

We as craftsmen need to help educate the masses. I am quite sure if she ask she would have been told the info. Sadly many wont ask so the tag helps greatly.
 
Purple Heart Platter

edstreet said:
OH, I almost forgot, that is a nice looking platter, how did you get the black lines on the edges? Also what is it finished with?
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The grooves were cut with an engraving tool and highlighted with a black texta pen. Then polished with "U-Beaut" wax.
I agree with you about the "tagging" or description process. This year I had a piece of Colonial Red Gum from my mate George in South Australia, which had a natural edge, the piece remained unsold for 5 days and then I decided to write a small history note and placed it beside the piece. It sold in 30 minutes.:)
Proves a point.
Bob.
 
That's a very nice looking platter. Great work on the turning and finishing.

There are wacko's everywhere. Here in Washington and Oregon the same nuts handcuff themselves to trees and the exstream ones have been known to drive steel spikes and nails into trees so the loggers are injured when harvesting the trees. This is just one example of what the ECO-NAZIS do to further their cause.
 
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