Re-purposed table made from antique oak at Demeters Steakhouse. Image Deb Cram/dcram@seacoastonline.com
Our friends at Regeneration Park have done it again…found another way to re-purpose a building material with spectacular results! This time, a 160 year old live oak that had been stored in a Massachusetts pond was fashioned into a massive round table for Demeters Steakhouse.
The craftsman-sculptor-artist, Les Haskell of Eliot, Maine, and his table were the subjects in an article by David Ramsay that appeared in the Portsmouth Herald . The artist explained that he had been asked to build the 800-pound table by the owner of Regeneration Park, John Bobbett, and really loved the challenge of the project. He found the lumber in an antique lumber company in Massachusetts where it was being stored in a pond for the purpose of repairing Constitution-class ships. In the article, Haskell said that:
”he crafted the table with nautical design elements…The iron base is a little bit indicative of a ship’s wheel..on all of those old ships, everything was captured with iron – just massive things. That was the feeling I wanted on it.”
Mr. Haskell was able to bring all facets of his training into this piece, from eight years of boating building, ten years spent doing architectural woodworking and time at the University of Washington studying steel and bronze casting. For more information about his work, Mr. Haskell can be reached at le-haskell@yahoo.com and you can see the table in place at Demeters Steakhouse.
