What's A Trivet?

The Pot Luck Story you have been waiting for.

I have always loved the line from ‘Noah’, an old Bill Cosby skit, (back in the day when he was possibly schmucking around, we didn’t know, he was just funny).

A booming voice comes out of the heavens, Noah! ………. he looks up,

build me an ARK!
After a thinking pause where you can imagine the facial contortions of a playing stupid not knowing Cosby (aka Noah and God) Noah replies to the voice……

“Whaaaaaat’s an AAARK !!!!?????”

That’s how I imagine the title sounding, and certainly how it intones in my head.

Whaaaaaaat’s a TRIVET !!! ??????

We will wind our way towards an answer.

I know that I am a visionary of sorts. (related to the licorice kind of all sorts) and I have known that for yonks. I have also known for yonks, that flipside of any strength can be a corresponding allsorts of vulnerabilities, failings and weaknesses. That’s just how it is, strengths 101 is also weaknesses 101. (life as we know it, is about maximising strengths and managing/minimising our weaknesses. They are a yin yang reality)

This kind of knowing develops in step with aging (but not always). Helped along by reflection, self awareness and understandings life brings our way in it’s own allsorts game of curved ball.

A long time before I started to learn how to weld ( about 4 years ago at 63ish ) I had a hunch I was good at repurposing things, seeing relationships/connections, patterns, possibilities, seeing how things could fit and work together, what they could be seen differently as, or differently become part of. This vision thang applied to people as well as the treasure trove of things rescued and stashed under blue tarps on the lawn, all awaiting rebirth, and revisioning. My wife may not have that same vision of the ‘blue tarp mounds’ dotted around the property but she gets me mostly, and the drive to create!

And the truth is …………..

I dunno if I (get myself )anymore either. My vision has exceeded the reality and the resources of time, energy, space, and the moollah I have left in this lifetime. AND that is another story…………not the moollah, but how can one man think he could do all that!

Part of this, what I would call a ‘gift’, (others would cruelly call it hording) is finding beauty or usefulness where others would not, could not, did not, Or won’t anymore. In a previous post I mentioned this about my Dad. Old machines and things from a different time, (not my Dad, but artifacts:-), the recognising, valuing of and rescuing was/is a matter of vision. Some kind of vision disease must be at work here, as a strength and as a weakness. Perspective is everything.

“The only thing that is worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”

One of my always and forever fav life quotes is from Helen Keller. The story goes along the lines of ………..Helen was asked what it was like to be blind and unable to see? (I bet that was not a new question for her) She came back with,

“The only thing that is worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”

The conclusion……..

Having eyes and being able to see are not the same thing!

N.B. The same thing actually could be said of ears. ( 20 years as a music specialist teacher, lotsa ears in the world but not everyone hears ) Hearing and seeing means engaging a brain, not just the existence of eyes and ears on or in a head.

Back to vision…..

I had vision in truck loads, (those blue trap mounds everywhere in the mind). This part of me applied to the potential in students over several decades. I was a much loved teacher and magnet to the different and neurodiverse. We were a collection, an ensemble of misfits, creatives and dreamers, people who felt safe together. No staff room hangouts in breaks for me. These quirky kids needed a space to feel safe in. Me too.
The people thang is maybe a story for another time, and again, it’s a big maybe; it all feels like a lifetime ago now. Retired in 2021 (for want of a better word) from teaching, I see this now as my payback time. My time to do me, treasure self and be the creative I spent my teaching life drawing out in others. My turn to flourish and be the best version of the little red hen I can be.

But that visionary thang, it is still moi to the core. That strength to maximise, those corresponding weaknesses to manage.

This story is about stuff,

Stuff

…………………….. tactile stuff, stuff you can hold in your hand, weighty and textured, chucked out, discarded and rejected, the deemed useless stuff, aka ‘the rubbish’ aka ‘the junk’.

The classic life hampering example of vision being a pain in the rear, or an affliction, is moi cutting firewood. In a past luthier and lover of wood life, the transfer of firewood from the woodpile to the inside firewood box is a serious and potentially life threatening issue. (just how many lumps of wood can you leave on the back doorstep to trip over), says the wife.

BUTTTTTT…. look at that lovely grain, ohhh that’s cut/split on the quarter ……………….that would make a cool veneer, I could bandsaw that, imagine that sanded and oiled…..sooooooo pretty.

(I have slowly become more ruthless) and poor Ruth, I have always wondered what she ever did that was soooooo wrong? Ruth…….lessness is like a virture in modern life admin. We have programmes on TV about it even.

Old tools, metal parts of things, rusty or anodised…..galvanised, zinc coated, chrome plated, cadnium plated, wow that could be, that could be, that could be. Blah blah blah……………….ruthlessness.

And around and around we go.

So whats a trivet!!??

and the point of all these words?

The word ‘trivet’ rolling off the mental tabletop or twisted tongue, also has me thinking of the classic frog sound, rrrribbit, rribbbit. So what’s a ribbbit? Whats a trivet??

My 1st Trivet, with way way too much phosphor bronze weld. Early TIG styles.

I made my 1st trivet completely by accident, I had no idea what it was. It was just a welded thang made up of amorphous parts and a chance for moi (the little red hen) to make something in this new life as a or ‘the’ mad welder. The chance was to create and make as well as practise tig welding. (3 years ago we are talk’n here, back in the welding dreamtime)

I come from a long line of engineers, a family of them in fact…….I’ve had a small voice whisphering inside my head all my life………Learn to weld, learn to weld,

and as I became ‘aware’, the voice said……..it so suits your mind and brain styles!

Me and my vision! (s)

I found a new use for that 1st trivet today. To stop eggs rolling off the bench.

This 1st one is not uber pretty, way too much weld, too this and too that………………Maybe I am being too hard on myself. The trivet is not complaining about life on the bench these last few years. This was my 1st real TIG welding project with phosphor bronze rod. (technically ‘brazing’). TIG welding of all the welding processes is the hardest to learn but this was the learning curve, me choosing and throwing my own curved ball……………… Too much weld I know. Too little heat control I know.

I am a sucker for shiny brass like metals. I understand way more now and were I to make this again it would be different……………..NEWSFLASH/BEAKING NEWS, what a bright idea, maybe I could remake one to illustrate (and test!) the claim, (were I to make this again it would be different). The little red hen will follow that up sometime.

What is a trivet?

trivet

/ˈtrɪvɪt/

noun

1. an iron tripod or bracket for a cooking pot or kettle to stand on.

   1. a small plate placed under a hot serving dish to protect a table or surface.

      

      

      Some of my earlier trivets. So love the re use, the re constituting of the parts. Mixed together for another reincarnation of being. A trivet. Different welding processes used here.

This is what I had made and not known that I had made.

I have since gone on to find homes for so much discarded metal thangs. Home is a trivet for old bearings, bearing shells, round things, square things, spring things, sockets, tools, bits of this and bits of that things………………………things bright, rusted and beautiful………………with a new destiny.
So much stuff is never recycled. So much is discarded and never finds new life.
I know I have the propensity to ascribe life to the inannimate.

Can’t help myself, and dunno if it’s totally wrong either!

One of my newer trivets, nearly finished. Just needs a foot to level it. This is oxy acetylene brazed and made of treasures from various sources. Also a smashed flat copper pipe from a farm is the base for the label branded with mykrd punched into it. After all done, this will get a thin satin coat of laquer to stop corosion. Yum yum. Lucky pots eh.

I enjoy making these kinds of things very much. Repurposing is fun and good for the planet. I do have to fess up that there are a few politicians I would like to repurpose into a trivet, and enjoy the placing of heavy, hot objects close to them. (on their heads seemed a tad too violent).
In closing this ‘trivet’ session, I hope that you have caught the vision. Another fav wise saying (whakatauki) of mine, around the way we look at things and perspectives as being choices………...
’Two men looked through prison bars, one saw mud, one saw stars’.
Trivets and pot luck? Nah trivets are choices about seeing, looking up, seeing stars. It’s a blessed pot to rest on such beauty. Lucky pot methinks!

In closing, here are some close ups and other trivets in process.

Trivets in process and use. I love the details. A simple satin laquer spray from M10 works best when finished and is hard wearing. A lot of fun to make, and save lovely metal bits and bobs from the scrap heap of the abyss. These are awaiting their copper plate badge with mykrd stamped on. A final buff and clean then spray and they are done.

Once again, thanks for reading. Bin working on this one a while!

I could weld you a unique trivet, :-) now we know wot they is!

I bent and welded that 12 mm rebar oval frame for this trivet myself about a year ago. Nearly finished, and with Tracey’s name on it for xmas, this horseshoe will be nearly 80 or more years old. Twas given to me by a friend from the Pouto peninsula whenua. Pretty special.

Cheers

Graham

NB. For the non welders. I am sorry that I have not bothered to explain welding processes and terms here around my reflection on my 1st efforts. It wasn’t my intent in writing or a traverse I wanted to add. I am adhd enough and constantly work on less is more as well as including those mind darts we all have when writing or reading……at least I think we all do.

Rabbit holes are there for us all to explore and learn about when the need or inclination arises, we all know that, and so I write with that in mind. The traverse thang also applies to statements around politics and politicians in Aotearoa……….we don’t all have to know everything, mind you, we all know some people who do have to, or think they do. Poor humans. This is all a very personal adventure isn’t it.
We only know what we know, unless life initiates or we do. That’s the curved ball game action right there.