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Woodworker whittles down big job by making connections

The Columbian
Published: October 11, 2010, 12:00am

Woodworkers can make some interesting connections.

That’s kind of the definition of their craft, after all — putting pieces of wood together to create something useful or beautiful.

But sometimes they connect with other people, which helped Allan Schwindt re-create the world in wood.

Schwindt is one of the volunteers who donated his talents and labor to the annual Friends of the Carpenter benefit dinner and auction Saturday.

In addition to his contributions to the Friends, a nonprofit agency that benefits the homeless, Schwindt has an online business marketing his bronze sculptures and wood artistry.

His work includes wall maps of the world, with every country re-created in wood that was grown in that nation.

That’s a lot of wood — and when your world measures 40 inches wide by 30 inches deep, that’s a lot of tiny places.

“About 150 countries are represented. It took a year and a half to collect all the wood,” he said. “I had a lot of trouble with Europe.”

He was able to double up on some varieties of wood. It’s not as if oak, for example, grows in only one spot on Earth. Still, Europe is made up of a lot of countries that have their own native forests.

Schwindt got a big assist from a fellow artist and wood collector in Slovenia. He sent the Slovenian five leaf lapel pins, hand-carved from exotic hardwoods, to get a trade going.

“He sent me back a box with wood from every country in Europe,” Schwindt said.

Closer to home

Schwindt also creates wall maps of the United States, each state in wood that grew in that state.

Some of it is a little easier to come by than the European wood — particularly in the Northwest corner.

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Idaho is represented by a piece of sagebrush, from the ranch of the brother of a wood-collector friend.

Schwindt reproduced Oregon with one of the many pieces of myrtlewood he had in his shop.

And Washington? “The western red cedar,” he said, “came from an old stump in my backyard.”

Off Beat lets members of The Columbian news team step back from our newspaper beats to write the story behind the story, fill in the story or just tell a story.

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