The Creative Side of Habitat Restoration: Atwork Display

There is something very satisfying about work, where you produce a real difference. I have been part of the volunteer Habitat Restoration team at Cuba Marsh for nearly four years now and in that time the impact of our efforts to remove non natives species and invasives such as buckthorn are amazing. The land becomes rejuvenated, dormant native plants begin to flourish, which in turn attracts wildlife. It is back breaking work but slowly and surely the areas is being restored to it's Prairie state. What's not to love about that!

The woody material we remove is burned but after a tour around the newly opened Arlington Heights Library Makers Center I had a "light bulb" moment how to use simple slices of it and create truly unique pieces of art. The Makers Center has a huge range of creative "toys" which are free to use for members, but what really caught my eye was their laser engraver - it offered an interesting approach to getting designs onto wood slices.

My creative mind whirred away, I am a graphic designer and create a lot of patterns for fabric ... here was a new medium for my patterns. There was a lot of dabbling around to work around some technical aspects and it would be amiss if I didn't call out and thank the guys I work with, for their enthusiasm in chain sawing the raw wood slices for me, but before I knew it I had a collection of Laser Etched wood Art!

The collection is on display in the Arlington Heights Memorial Library until the end of June.

All of my work including this collection can be seen at ZoeFeast.com