PORT WILLIAMS, N.S. — It might be August, but on Kevin Wood’s property, one dark-coloured tree has begun to bloom.
This tree, swathed in black copper tubing, is a source of a steady trickle of water.
That’s because it’s actually a product of Wood’s handiwork.
Wood, a farmer, metalworker, businessman and all-around jack of all trades from the Port Williams area, proudly exhibits Tapestry, a large, trickling fountain that is the result of two decades of preparation.
Part artwork, part practical craftsmanship, the first thing a person notices approaching Tapestry is that it sounds like taps – 113 of them emitting a continuous, simultaneous cascade of water.
Wood’s enormous iron and copper fountain is far more than the sum of its parts, however. The motivation behind the intricate creation was simple: “I have a lot of customers who buy produce from me and I just wanted to build something for them to enjoy.”
The desire to make something to marvel at coincided with Wood’s possession of a lot of old items.
The elbow grease to bring together approximately 1,000 pounds of iron, copper taps and tubing came naturally to Wood. His property is home to a blacksmith shop, a cooper’s shop, a wheelwright shop, and a tinsmith shop.
These shops, and the abundance of old equipment in them, are part of a plan much larger and more intricate than even the fountain Wood’s backyard. Eventually, he wishes to assemble a collection big enough to constitute a proper museum.
Wood mapped the fountain out in his mind for years while collecting bits and pieces for his masterpiece.
“When you’re collecting old technology, you’re always picking up old tool chests and emptying old buildings that have a bunch of old trades tools in them,” Wood said. “Quite often there are brass taps.”
Wood eventually found himself in possession of a robust collection of copper taps and began to ponder what he could do with them.
“I had quite a collection of them from over the years,” Wood said. “I thought it would be nice to have some water going through them.”
Suddenly, inspiration struck.
In addition to the taps, Wood found a lot of used copper amid his collection of old items.
Eventually, with a plan in mind, he started deliberately collecting old copper and iron from a nearby scrapyard, whenever available.
SAM MACDONALD
Most of the work to complete the fountain took place in the winter – the “off-months.” He grows and sells produce between February and April.
The fountain sits in the middle of a pond Wood crafted. The yard around it is paved with rough, antique bricks.
Walking around the tree, Wood can point to individual taps and trace them back to their origins, referencing features of each differently shaped opening, differentiating between spigots, taps for beer from 1800s breweries, taps for more viscous fluids such as molasses, taps once set on board ships and faucets from old bathtubs.
Watching the many dribbling tendrils of water falling into the stone pool on Wood’s property, observing the play of patina on copper, there is a sense of tranquility, and permanence. That’s misleading, because in truth, Wood hasn’t finished the fountain.
Giving Kings County News a tour of his blacksmith’s shop, Wood produced a small pile of hammered copper leaves, the last parts needed to complete the intended look of a metal tree, flush with patina-green copper leaves.
Wood, who has done woodwork and metalwork all his life, said the fabrication process was not difficult.
“The engineering was tricky, because with the size of the waterline, the size of the pump and the fact that it had to go through 113 different lines,” Wood said. “This has never been done before – if someone were to do a Google-search about this, nothing would come up. It was very much a shot in the dark, hoping that it would work. In the end, when my electrician hooked up the pump, it did work.”
