- A nest is a place where you have
a sense of protection and strength.
It's like an earth temple or a nature temple.
The wood is following a pattern,
but not one branch is the same.
As a nest builder, I'm following those patterns.
Most of the work is trying to bring out
the best of those shapes with each other.
(elegant violin music)
I'm Jayson Fann, and I'm a nest builder.
I started building nests as a child.
The nest building was really an intuitive process
of just gathering branches and building forts originally.
And the nest grew and got bigger and more elaborate.
Now some of the nests are as big
as a hundred thousand pounds of wood.
The hardest part of building
the nest is really gathering all the wood.
I use a chainsaw to cut wood.
I use a machete to cut off all the excess leaves
and from there, I really assess,
you know, what kind of shapes I have,
what kind of material I have to work with.
The construction process of the nest first is creating
the foundation and the infrastructure.
And then I follow those larger sculptural shapes
that I bolt together with smaller material
that I can weave in and around.
I use every part of the tree,
the trunk of the tree, all the way down
to the very smallest twig and branch of the tree.
I've gotten to where I'm used to building them
on flatbed trailers and moving them around,
and in many cases, I'm transporting them across the country.
Because the nests are quite heavy,
I use cranes and forklifts and different kinds of equipment.
This is all eucalyptus.
There's over 75 different species
of eucalyptus on this property.
I've built around 50 nests all over the country,
and now primarily, I build the nests
with kids within an educational setting.
As an educator, like, it's really important to work
with kids and help them realize that they have
the ability to shape and create an environment.
I'm gonna show you how we can integrate
those branches into the spiral.
I love getting kids out into nature,
interacting with nature.
And the nest is actually very much
a collaboration with nature.
I know I've done a good job when it looks like
the nest is something that could
almost have grown out of the ground.