Arts, Dining & Entertainment, Featured

The Naked Table Project returns for its 8th year

Saturday & Sunday, Aug. 20 & 21—WOODSTOCK—In an experience that epitomizes Vermont values, ShackletonThomas invites 15 to 20 participants, groups, and families to come and make their own table from sugar maple locally harvested from the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in Woodstock, followed by a locally harvested lunch. Events take place on Aug. 20 and  21.

The Naked Table Project builds tables with and for friends and families in communities across New England, made of Vermont’s iconic sugar maple which has been responsibly managed and locally harvested. Participants will build in local workshops, walk and learn in local forests, and celebrate over a locavore feast upon the built tables — forest to table.

The Naked Table is naked of ego, stripped to its essentials as the centerpiece of the home, and is made in the most simplistic and time-tested manner. Family and friends are invited to the workshops to make tables for themselves to last for ages to come. Each piece in the Naked Collection is made from the iconic sugar maple harvested in the forests that surround the workshops — inverse from conventional methods of deforestation and sourcing wood from anywhere in the nation, or the world. Using Vermont Natural Coatings, whey-based finish, the table is completely non-toxic with minimal environmental impact.

On Sunday afternoon, heralded by piper Tim Cummings, a lunch for 120 guests is held on the Middle Bridge in the center of Woodstock village. Seated around the tables made the previous day, participants are joined by friends and community members, and are served a three-course lunch created entirely from locally grown produce by the Woodstock Farmers’ Market.

The Naked Table Project was created by Charles Shackleton, furniture designer and cousin of the famous Antarctic explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton.

When asked what was the idea behind this inspired project, Charlie Shackleton responded that, “One of the aspects of the human that sets them apart is their highly developed ability to make things with their hands. This project combines this innate facility with people’s desire to work together in groups, and make something from the world’s most sustainable and renewable building material, which is wood from trees. The end result is an incredible, handmade, and very functional souvenir of our connection to each other and the natural world.  A gathering place for families to come together at the table for generations to come.”

For more info contact Corey Fitch at cfitch@shackletonthomas.com or 802-672-5175 ext 129.

 

Courtesy of the Naked Table Project
Using Vermont Natural Coatings whey-based finish, the table is completely non-toxic. The cows seem to like it!

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