THE RURAL TOOTHPICK
miksa albert, ethan burley, jacob hedge, nasios varnavas + dan van orsouw
The ‘Rural Toothpick’ as an idea was born in the summer session of the year previous after seeing how many White Storks that were in Lithuania and within the local area of the Ranch. Finding out they used to nest on the roof of the house until needed work was carried out on the house only fuelled us to carry out this project. Tying in with this year’s project brief, Acts of removal, the project evolved from making a simple Storks nest through various design stages, in order that all natural materials used were sourced from the Ranch itself. The initial stage was to procure as suitable support for the nest and due to the Ranch’s expanding forestation, we sought this from an area where thinning was required. Once selected we felled the tree using an axe and proceeded to prepare the trunk by removing branches and its exterior bark layer before moving it to the Big Barn to protect it from the weather and then charring the lower base to treat it against decay. After surveying the Ranch, a suitable site was chosen where the post could be viewed from what we perceived to be key locations. Those being the Big Barn, the Sleeping Barn and the House. The nest was also positioned far enough away from these locations for minimal disturbance.