Arborigin is a collaborative project that brings together artists, designers and artisans to produce fine products from a single elm tree salvaged from Chicago’s urban forest. We invite those interested to submit a proposal to use some of our inventory of cured lumber and hope to bring the finished products together for a pop up store […]
Category Archives: project dispatches
A1 Travel Grants, Mission Chinese, Sea Monsters
The best days usually aren’t recognizable as such while they are happening, they just flow whether or not you’re paying attention. We often devote so much mental time and energy laying the groundwork for things to go right that we neglect to notice when they do. I had one of those days yesterday, but was […]
Sea Monsters on my mind
The depiction of sea monsters is as old as seafaring. Only the shape, size and imagined intention of the monster changes over time, generally in direct relation to what is being explored and whatever constitutes the boundaries of current knowledge. Sea monsters represent the unknown, simultaneously warding off and goading the curious-minded. Historically, sea monsters […]
Experiments in Wooden Planing Hulls
Top and bottom of my latest bellyboard, laminated from cedar and walnut veneers. I’m a purist when it comes to riding waves. Or maybe a minimalist. Or both. I grew up bodysurfing on the Jersey Shore in the Seventies, learning about tides and wind, sandbars and swell. We surfed beach breaks exclusively, daily, no matter […]
Introducing the BLAKE
The BLAKE table in situ (photograph by Mimi Gibion for Remodelista) I call my latest table design the BLAKE as an homage to the pioneering surfer/shaper Tom Blake, inventor of the hollow surfboard. BLAKE is a minimalist sculpture as much as a functional dining table, a floating white torsion box, compatible with Shaker and surfer alike. […]
Update from Swell Break: Deep Craft on the Edge
Rodeo Beach, viewed from the trail from Headlands Center for the Arts Located on a barren bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the Marin Headlands, the Headlands Center for the Arts (HCA) feels remote, like the edge of civilization, despite its close proximity to San Francisco. Founded in the early 1980’s, HCA occupies a series […]
Bellyboards Galore
Top and bottom view of my EggBellyboard in Western Red Cedar and Walnut I’ve made a few bellyboard prototypes for my upcoming Swell Break project at the Headlands. The first batch are deceptively minimalist, egg-shaped, about 39″ long and 23″ wide, 5/8″ thick at the middle, feathering out to about 5/16″ at the edges. I […]