There is always an element of danger to Blue’s design and he accomplished this within the wiring. Blade switches for the 120 volts quivering thru her belly! We encourage curiosity in the Vardo, but also want to preserve visitor’s safety, and so the warning sign became necessary when we realized how many visitors were curious enough to reach out to touch. And of course no home is complete without a hearth. He salvaged this beauty, hidden way and under cover, from an old barn that was to be torn down. He refabricated the pieces that had disintegrated, created copper heat shields and worked back and forth between wood burning and propane. Efficacy mated with nostalgia and wood burning won the day! We sleep in her year round, no matter the weather. Our stalwart thermometer keeps us aware of how beautifully adaptive the human body needs to be to keep pace with the seasons.
CURIOSITIES
It was difficult and expensive to ship fully formed wood burning stoves to the rural areas early on, one of these being particularly in the Appalachian Mountains. So manufacturers created deconstructed versions which could be crate shipped in flatter boxes. The tops, fronts, pots and legs could be ordered from the companies while the material for the sides and piping could be purchased more locally or created from already salvaged materials. Our particular stove is from the United States Stove Co. founded in So. Pittsburg, Tennessee in 1869. “In the winter, warmth stands for all virtue.” Henry David Thoreau.