The Stick Bed

When you just have to sleep on sticks.

The Stick Bed. Natural birch from the local forest. Reused screws from an abandoned forest hut. Each stick harvested with gratitude and with care for the forest and ecosystem.

You walk in the woods looking at each tree and ask: "Do you want to be part of a journey and support me when I fly away into other dimensions at night?" You look closer and observe the thickness and how straight the tree is and if it is close to other trees. Remembering to honor the harvest and not take too many trees from one place.

The trees talk back through your feelings and how fit you feel they are to support your projects. "They want to express themselves through my hands," you tell yourself, and thank each tree. Life is reciprocal. The trees offer themselves to you, and you offer them a chance to express themselves through your hands.

Making of the bed

Create your own foundation to sleep on. Offer yourself the chance to feel that you take care of your own body's needs. Sleep is one of the most important needs of the body. Imagine the signals you send to yourself by spending all those hours finding sticks with the correct thickness, length, and straightness. Cutting them down in an honorable way with respect for each tree and the forest. Taking them home to be stripped bare, dried, and then molded together to create a foundation. Imagine the signals of safety and care this sends to your body. How are you taking care of yourself through the foundation you choose to sleep on?

Ongoing carving process.

Harvest sticks for your specific needs and do not take more than is required. The forest is your storage and you can always come back. Do not let yourself be in a hurry, but enjoy the process while it lasts.

It is a simple process. Sketch your idea on paper first and think through the steps. This saves a lot of time, energy, and resources. I decided I wanted a bed that two people could sleep on, but that was also not too wide. I settled on a 90 cm (width) × 200 cm (length) bed for that purpose. Make a sketch and then get to work. The most important thing you can do is to start. Planning helps, but if that is all you do, then you never actually begin the work of going out.

Stick bed production. One stick at a time is placed and screwed at place.

I chose to have some space between each stick to circulate the air, but also to save resources, time and energy. I love working with wood, but there is a capacity of home many sticks I can produce. All screws where saved and reused from a local forest hut that was abandoned. The low profile helps to circulate air.

Finished bed with madrass.

What is it like to sleep on it? It is lovely indeed! You can feel the sticks, but it is soft enough that you can sleep on your side. It is a special feeling sleeping on a bed you created yourself. With sticks that are not just taken without consent, but with gratitude towards the place they came from. This is what it feels like to take care of myself, and I offer thanks for all the people and plants that have been part of this project.