Ethical Beds

External dimensions: 5'8" wide, 7'1" long, 5'10" high.

Although I like to use pine beams from the factories and mills of the North West as the main component for my beds, there is something irresistible and romantic about making a new and creative use of the distressed, characterful timbers thrown back by the sea and retrieved along the Mersey Estuary. By combining the two I like to think I am blending together the maritime and industrial traditions of where I have grown up and lived.


What attracted me to this piece of timber were the four huge, bent nails sticking out of it. They hint at the enormous power of the sea in being able twist them like that. I knew it would eventually become the cross-piece for a headboard.

 

 

 

I managed to retrieve the crosspieces for both Burbo Bank henges at the same time, although the nailed piece needed considerable slimming down.

 

It was a very cold, wet day when I dragged these two pieces along the beach to the car, and they were so waterlogged it felt like they they weighed a ton! They had been embedded in the sand close to each other. Given that the pieces have the same dimensions it lends itself to the conclusion that they are landfill rather than flotsam, but what was sticking up still had lots of distinctive wave erosion.





The crosspiece gradually evolved into a sort of boat shape, so I wanted the supports to have some curve in them as well. The solution was to tongue-and-groove two pieces together for each support, then cut a complementary curve into them.

























For the side and top pieces I went to the reclamation yard and found these pine factory beams, although thet needed a lot of cleaning up. I decided to continue the curved theme in the side pieces as well.

 

This picture shows the twelve separate pieces of timber which go into making the main frame (14 if you count the two pieces in each upright for the headboard).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here you can see the not-inconsiderable mortise and tenon joints which hold the frame together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now to some pictures of the bed in a more appropriate setting. The diagonal scar across this leg of the bed was made by a steel bar which had been jammed against it in the Crosby mud.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here you can see the dense growth rings of the leg pieces, also the staining into each crack caused by the sea. To keep as much of the weathering as possible I simply allowed the timber time to dry out, cleaned into all the crevices with a wire brush, then waxed it thoroughly with a toothbrush and a soft cloth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I particularly like this picture because it captures all the disparate and distinctive elements of the bed, and also gives a sense of its size.

 

This, I think, is far and away the most distinctive Henge Bed I've made to date it certainly took the longest time from finding that original gnarled nailed lump of timber, to being able to photograph it as a completed bed. This picture best illustrates why I have come to think of it affectionately as the "dreadboard".