Travel Altar

$145.00

A portable altar is a skillful way to take your practice with you or to use where space is limited. This is a unique piece from a unique material.

A few years ago we had a Bradford Pear in the front yard that fell, as they are prone to do. My generous neighbor helped me get it cut into fire pit sized logs. He has tree removal experience so he’s got great tools for that job. I’ve used almost all of the tree in our fire pit over the years but I still have a few logs left. I needed a base for a sculpture I’m working on and thought, one of those logs would be great. I can run it through the table saw and make a flat side and Boom! a perfect base.

What surprised me was the grain. It’s such a visually fascinating pattern. Since I had a few small scraps from milling my base I made some tiny planks and put together a small box. Finished it with some linseed oil and it looked so cool. I culled a few more logs that were still solid so I could make this altar.

Overall size: 8.75″ tall x approximately 3″ square, Inner space: 8.25″ tall x 2.25″ square, storage space: 2.5″ high x 2.25″ square

The doors open by hand easily but don’t swing open. There’s storage in the base that can be hidden with the small cover shown in the pics. The front features the Zenfluenced lotus cut from a pine board. The “lock” is the kanji for river.

1 in stock

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Description

If there’s one thing that’s constant, it’s change. Isn’t that what they say? Examples of impermanence are around us all the time. When I was looking at the old Bradford pear logs to find a suitable log for the base I needed, most of them were showing signs of their impermanence. Dry rot and “wet rot” (is that a thing?) made most of them unusable. They were being digested and broken down. Returning to be nutrients for the next generation of plants. Filling the bellies of pill bugs and other tiny fauna. No longer a tree but still playing a role. Constantly changing into new forms that the world needs. I think it infuses a bit of that dharma message into the piece.

I managed to find a few logs that were still mostly solid and stash them away for safe keeping. The grain of the wood draws me in. I’ll make a few more pieces out of it. It’s not just the grain though. Another part is that THIS USED TO BE A LOG!! I was stoked that I managed to take a log from our firewood and turn it into a thing. Not just a thing but a cool thing. That’s pretty cool.

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