WORKCAMP PARQUET is a platform for the exchange and transfer of knowledge and traditional and innovative technologies across generations and countries. Every year, as part of a weekly project, every year in a different country, in a different location, an international group of parqueters builds a wooden floor together. Working together brings inspiration, motivation, innovation and much more. "It is a unique experience, that is not easy to describe, it has to be lived", say many participants.
The aim of the WORKCAMP PARQUET project is to share traditional parquet art and mastery. This year, master restorers and parqueters worked together with apprentices at Groot-Bijgaarden Castle in Belgium to restore a 120 m2 parquet floor from 1690 and to share knowledge and craft on an international level through the language of the hands, through the language of the craft.
During the week there were also a number of specialist seminars and workshops: Basics of parquet renovation (René Caran, PARQUET RENSPOL, CZ and Martin Kranl, Wiener Parkett Kompetenz, AT), Planers types, settings and sharpening (Björn Menyes, Raum und Boden, DE), Historical glues (Michaela Reichlová, PARQUET RENSPOL, CZ), Wood aging (Benno Broen, HOUT VAN HOUT exclusive, NL), Hand scraping of wooden floors (Che Polfliet, C-Parquet, BE), Competition "Determination of the wood species" Johan Zwartbol, Maple Leaf, NL), Geometry in practice (Leonard A. Hall, Endurance Floor Company, US), Blanchon presentation, Restoration practice in Bavaria (Heinrich Piening, Bavarian State Administration of Palaces, Gardens and Lakes, DE).
Our ambassadors have invited us to the next few years of the project: Pietro Corrao to Italy 2022, Zoltán Molnár to Hungary 2023, Corey Osman to England 2023 and Emilio M. Andres to Spain 2024.
The parquet floors in the castle have been well cared for, but our team's restoration work has breathed new life into them. We mainly used hand saws, planes, chisels and chisels. We used the original wood of the castle parquet to add or replace the damaged parts and we only added new parts to the missing parts. For gluing, we "cooked" a mixture of hide and bone glue on site. To achieve the desired wood tone, we mixed the ink color and colored it topically with coffee. After installing and replacing damaged parquet, we cleaned the entire area with turpentine and then applied traditional beeswax. Now the parquets are alive again and ready for further use.
Before finishing the last part, we put a message for the future under the floor. A wooden plaque with the signatures of all those involved, with the repair date from September 4 to 11, 2021 and the logo of the WORKCAMP PARQUET project.
Through the eyes of our participants, you were able to follow the events at the castle throughout the week. You can find this news on our Facebook, Instagram and on the project website.
The motivation to continue and pass on the craft was well understood and understood in the team of participants. All of this is only possible thanks to the motivation and enthusiasm of the individual participants, who together form a large motivational unit from craft to craft. Many thanks also to our industrial partners who believe in us, who support us financially or materially. Together with our partners, we manage to maintain the motivation for traditional craftsmanship in practice. For this year we were supported by the following companies: DOMOTEX (DE), FENTO (NL), BONA (BE), MUREXIN (AT), CIRANOVA (BE), CHIMIVER (IT), STAUF (DE), LOBIS (IT) and NWFA (US). Last but not least, a big thank you goes to the Pelgrims family, the owners of the Groot-Bijgaarden castle in Dilbeek in Belgium, where this year's WORKCAMP PARQUET took place. Thank you for the warm welcome and background, thank you for allowing us to implement the project. (Text from Michaela Reichlová and René Caran, The project organizer, workcamp-parquet.cz)
