Chalk & Talk Table

Background:
Here is a “Chalk & Talk Table” I made in contribution to a garden design project I’m leading called the “Six Sisters Garden”.  The Six Sisters Garden is an urban garden for the benefit of six former refugee families starting a new life together in a converted school building.

Abstract:
When we think about conventional blackboards, we usually imagine a dedicated, single purpose item for teaching.  They are smooth, rectangular, and wall mounted (indoors only), and quite large.  Normally, a single instructor stands in front of a class, using plain dusty white chalk to explain a subject to students.  Occasionally students are invited to silently come up to stand at the board to work.  The Chalk & Talk Table challenges most of these conventions.

Description:
First, the orientation: the blackboard area is a horizontal table instead of a vertical board.  Rather than standing uncomfortably or briefly, participants can choose to sit and stay a while.  They can bring whatever they have with them, be it notes, a hot drink, a tablet, or perhaps a good book, and rest it upon the table.  They can lay it all out on the table and take their time doodling, thinking, and planning; or they can just sit or stand and talk with others.  They can come and go as they please.  Additionally, with no height difference playing an effect, participants sitting down and writing or drawing have all their ideas represented on an equal level, rather than at varying heights like on a wall mounted board.

Second, the shape: a circle rather than a rectangle.  Circles represent unity, harmony, belonging, completeness, dynamic stability, and equality.  Think: campfire rings, wedding bands, group hugs, gyroscopes and bicycles.  There is no “head” of a circular table.  Circles also represent cyclical change, such as seasons, phases of the moon and planets, and so there is change but also continuity.  Newcomers can easily be welcomed into the conversation if everyone present scoots back just a little.  

Third, the location: outside.  While I fully expect this table to be primarily used indoors by kids for doodling, it is my hope that it will be used outdoors (by all ages) as well.  I hope that the outdoors will inspire what is drawn and written on the table.  I hope that the table will radiate with flowers, streams, and sunbeams.  I hope it will have written upon it garden To-Do lists, planting and sowing dates, harvest yield results, weather and rain observations, and other garden-related bits.  The material is weather resistant and can handle it.  If it wears down, new blackboard paint layers can be applied for greater longevity.  

Fourth, the material: it’s rough and sturdy, but a little flexible in the legs.  The table is made from the top half of a plywood industrial wire spool.  The wood has been around the world to say the least, and it shows.  Yes there are chips and splinters and divots and pieces missing.  But it is sturdy, and adaptable to its new and beautiful life.  Each imperfection can be converted into something unique.  Ripples in the wood can be transformed into sandy dunes and ocean waves, and jagged areas drawn into volcanic islands and surrounding waters with sailing vessels; all at the stroke of a chalk pen.  Long splintered sections can become roads and railways connecting ideas or kids' drawings.  This table is not a blank slate.  Rather, it is bringing its past life with it.  It has a rough background, but it stands ready for its new life filled with colorful ideas and good times, put down at the tips of chalk pens.  May it be surrounded by good conversations as well as quiet contemplations.

How to use the Chalk & Talk Table as a calendar.
1. The wire spool this table came from had 6 holes arranged in a hexagonal pattern about the center.  Using these holes as a guide, mark out 6 tick marks around the table's edge with chalk.  If there are no holes available, consider using a protractor.
2. Bisect these six marks, making an additional 6 marks around the perimeter, for a total of twelve.  Each mark should be about 30 degrees away from the next for a total of 360.  It doesn't have to be perfect.
3. Write the names of the months at each of the twelve marks.  Consider using a fun color for the seasons, and writing in multiple languages if you are practicing learning a new language.  For the Six Sisters table, I did:
   Blue = Winter months
   Green = Spring months
   Yellow = Summer months
   Red = Autumn months
4. Add key dates and things to look forward to in the appropriate month's sector.  Dates could be birthdays and holidays, first and last frost dates, sowing and harvesting dates, or any old thing.  Deadlines, important events, weekly chore rotation schedules, and milestones could also be added with a little check block [  ] next to them along with the person's name.  Consider allocating each family or family member a specific color or shape of their own.
5. Consider drawing a doodle rather than just writing.  A <3 could be used for Valentine's Day, a wrapped present for birthdays, fireworks for New Year's, etc. See attached for an example doodle I drew for "last frost date".
6. Previous events can also be doodled or written to turn the table into a kind of visual journal.  On New Year's Eve, take a moment to reflect, and then take a snapshot to remember all the fun events from the past year!  Then wipe it clean!
7. Not enjoying the year-long calendar?  Just wet it and wipe it!  Or modify it (e.g. quarterly calendar, one month calendar, one week schedule, etc.)

Using professional templates and tools.
Professional and amateur designers alike can easily draw on the table with landscape templates.  Fun templates like this one from Mr. Pen can cost less than $10.  French curves can add more natural lines, which are often preferred by permies.  If doing more precise permaculture design "sector analysis", then a magnetic compass, protractor, and/or parallel plotter or navigator's rolling ruler may be helpful for drawing things like solar azimuth or wind direction.

Templates for kids (and kids at heart).
Younger children can use templates as well.  Old jar lids, scraps of wood, and cut shapes of cardboard can become instant rough templates.  A makeshift template can also be cut out of a large scrap plastic lid after being traced with the more "professional" landscape or interior design template (in order to prevent children from damaging one's tools).  Transparent, rigid plastic sheeting can also create "overlays" for multiple design layers.  Chalk pens themselves could serve as a form of 'overlay' too, if they are wet-erase.  A wet-erase chalk drawing could serve as the base layer for kids to draw over with their standard "dry erase" chalk.  At the end of the day, the dry layer will come off much more easily than the wet layer (which will need some time to dry, first, before being drawn over).  Permanent paint can make permanent templates, too.  Examples of how to use this overlay concept are endless:

Tic-Tac-Toe: Draw the four lines in wet-erase, and the "X"s and "O"s in dry erase.

"Dots and boxes" game:  Adult draws the dots in a formal matrix, and kids draw the lines and boxes in dry erase chalk.

Other pen and paper style games like hangman, battleship etc.

Axes and grids for Math: Plot lines and curves on a pre-drawn cartesian plane.

Board games: Do squares along a perimeter for "Monopoly" or a grid of hexagons for  "Settlers of Catan", or make your own board game

"Pattern to detail": Adult draws the "oval" outline of a face, and kids draw the nose, ears, mouth, eyes, etc.  Plan-view landscape design, or sectional view design: the adult draws the house outline, and kids draw the windows and doors and chimney, etc..  Adult draws a "biome" like desert, forest, ocean, or field, and kids add the critters, waterways, more trees, fish, homes, etc.

*Note: More sanding and coats of paint are needed to create a smooth table surface out of a salvaged plywood wire spool for "professional" style drawings.

This table will serve as an outdoor (semi-permanent) centerpiece for a 2022 Spring garden workshop I'm planning for our "Six Sisters Garden" project.  The legs came from donated/discarded neighborhood Christmas trees, but because they are screwed on through existing holes, they can be easily replaced with more modern legs if the style doesn't suit its future owners.  No power tools were used in this project.

Symbolism:
The three legs are symbolic of the three ethics of permaculture:

"Earth Care"

"People Care"

"Future Care"

The legs lean upon one another, as a reminder that the three permaculture ethics are inter-dependent.  For instance: to care for the earth, one must care for their fellow man, or else others will destroy the environment in their times of ignorance, desperation, or folly.  To care for one's fellow man, one must ensure their environment is healthy and productive, providing for all basic needs.  In order to achieve these aims tomorrow and in perpetuity, thoughtful systems and limits must be observed today, with surpluses put to appropriate use rather than wasted, and so on.

The legs will be decorated with small wood tokens which we'll be using in the pyrography portion of the workshop.  The table will also host a single propagating spider plant which was a gift from a neighbor.  That plant will symbolize the third ethic, and it can be used during the planting portion of the workshop, too.

This next Chalk & Talk Table (C&TT) will also go outdoors into the Six Sisters Garden, to complement some new benches we are planning on assembling.

I had a ton of fun making this, trying out something new I've never done before -- using a settler's wrench!  Again, the legs for this smaller coffee table came from donated and discarded Christmas trees from our neighborhood; but this time, I used a settler's wrench tool, also known as a Scotch eye auger, in order to make fun cross-bracing.  I especially had fun making and using the compound mallet (though my handle didn't pass all the way through the mallet head, so no PEP BB credit for me).  I used lag screws (120 and 140mm long) in order to keep the notches nice and snug.  But I again had a little trouble with some of the screw heads rounding off the hex-head screwdriver bit.  So I finally learned my lesson and I made deep pilot holes with gimlets.  I also had much more difficulty sawing the legs even, as the tiny pruning saw has gotten more than it bargained for after making wooden tokens and ornaments, despite my sharpening it with a diamond file.  If I could go back in time, I would have purchased a nice bowsaw for myself.  (Though I miss my power tools!)

The table top was also salvaged.  It came from an old warped IKEA cutting board which someone had tossed out on a city sidewalk.  I think the warped arch of the board will actually shed water better than a flat board!  And the black chalkboard paint is much cleaner feeling on this smooth board compared to the first C&TT, and I also did a layer of black primer first.  I used much smaller lag screws to attach the top, again with pilot holes first!  The color of the chalk pens really "pops" against the blackboard, and they add some much needed elegance to its sturdy rustic nature.  I'm happy with my floral doodles, too!

Edit to add:
I figured out why I've had such difficulty with screw heads rounding off.  Hex heads are not the same as Torx heads.  I've been using a hex bit inside a Torx screw, because that's all I had.  Totally wish I had found the right bit earlier, as it would have saved me a lot of wrenching with my pliers.

Today I borrowed a neighbor's truck, and we delivered the rustic Chalk & Talk Table to its new home!  

We also delivered some foldable-stackable raised beds, and these three multicolored benches which were painted and assembled during recent work parties I've been leading.  

I think this table looks pretty swell in its new home!  Can't wait to bring some chalk over for doodling!

Thanks, George for sharing!

That looks like a great place to gather with a cup of coffee and hash out garden plans, or just doodle ...