Emily Southwood –
Elgin’s Ben Lecluse is one of the numerous local artisans who will be displaying their wares at the increasingly well-known Christmas Market in Ormstown on Sunday December 3rd.
Ben, a master carpenter by profession, has been building things for a long time. Tree Tings came about a few years ago, when he’d retired from his business in cabinetry making and often noted a pair of toaster tongs in the kitchen at friends’ homes. He had a lot of scrap wood in his woodshop, not to mention an endless supply of lumber on his 120 acre farm, and said to himself: “I could make those.” He branded the first incarnation of his hobby-become-business Tree Tongs, which he began to make out of different types of found and local wood.
From there, he began making all sorts of items from rolling pins to cheese boards to spoons (for right handed stirrers and for lefties). The result is a collection of artful and useful items now called Tree Tings. “I have accumulated all of the machinery I need throughout my career and what I don’t have, I find or make,” he says as he explains the mechanics behind the branding press that he and a friend put together. He also displays his method of steaming wood with a rigged-up teakettle and how utensils are treated in vats of beeswax and mineral oil. What’s clear in his woodshop is that the pieces are a labor of love. “It takes me about a year to use up a tree,” he says and laughs. “So I could be here a while.” He noted when he attended last year’s Christmas Market that the clientele tends to care about the type of the wood. Accordingly, all Tree Tings display their origin, be it Cherry, Walnut, Oak, Ash, Beech or Purple Heart.
Haut Saint-Laurent residents and visitors can support their love for hand-made and local goods at the popular Christmas Market. Highlights will include music from renowned local talents Daniel McKell and Pierre Lachance and eats from Kitchery Catering. The market will take place on Sunday, December 3rd, 2017. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m at The Ormstown Rec Center, 87 Roy St. Ormstown. Ben Lecluse’s Tree Tings will also be on sale at the Saint Lazare Christmas market, at the Saint-Lazare Community Center, on Saturday December 9 and Sunday December 10, 2017.
