Word: gondola
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...After his apprenticeship Price started his own business as a general woodworker. He also put up a website about gondolas, www.squero.com, and occasionally people would write and ask him to make one for them. He got a serious proposal from a man in Texas, and was on his way to becoming a squerariolo. It's not hard to sell a gondola, Price says, it's hard to find someone to make one for you. He returned to Bonaldo, and cut a deal with him for the use of his workshop and its strongback, the nearly 12-m frame around which...
...Several different woods are used in building a gondola; the hardest pieces to find are the oak planks for the sides, which need to run the entire 11.5-m length of the gondola. The builders go to the lumberyard and choose the trees as they come in. Oak is both strong and rot-resistant, and is also used on the bottom of the boat. Elm is employed in some sections because it's strong and won't split. The breasthooks, two big solid pieces at both ends of the boat, are made from basswood, since it's easy to carve...
...time in Venice, more than two centuries ago, the gondola was a kind of horse and buggy for every well-to-do family. Now it's primarily for tourists. The basic shell - no seats, no brass ornaments, no extras - costs about $22,000. If you load it with everything, the price can run to about $36,000. A key element in any gondola is the forcola, which serves as an oar post but in fact is often a work of art. There are only three people left who carve forcole out of large pieces of walnut...
...learn how to make a forcola, and about 25 to learn it well. In addition to their very practical use on boats, the elbow-shaped forcole are classy wooden sculptures and Pastor has both Mick Jagger and architect I.M. Pei among his clients. He says the crisis in gondola making is only part of a larger problem. "There are other kinds of boats that people don't even know how to make anymore," he says, referring to craft like the peata and the batea con la coda di gambero (boat with the shrimp's tail), both once used for transporting...
...long can gondola making survive? Daniele Bonaldo, who has made gondolas for a half-century, has little confidence in the talk from local officials about starting a school for squerarioli. The school has been just that, talk, for about 20 years. Besides, theory is one thing, but when it comes to making boats, practical experience is everything. "If you have passion and skill, you can do it," he says. Bonaldo clearly sees those attributes in Price, and is proud of having helped the young American. "He does things well because he has a lot of patience," Bonaldo says...