1/4 scale, schematic model of the Vermillion Rockfish, carved from pine and redwood

Between meetings for new wowhaus projects over the past week, I’ve completed two 1/4 scale models of our mosaic fish sculptures for the Ortega Branch of the San Francisco Public Library, commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission. I’ve borrowed a few techniques from boatbuilding to visualize the forms in 3d and consequently loft the structure to full scale. Traditionally, a marine architect would carve a ‘half hull’ model in wood to test a new shape, from which all sections and measurements would be made for full scale construction. The model would literally be cut into sections, which translate directly into construction plans and building jigs.

Ene made a lovely sample panel of the reflective, tile mosaic for the ‘anchovy’ sculpture (photo: Genevieve Masse)

To make the models, I laminated scraps of pine and redwood and roughed out the shapes with a bandsaw. Using small spokeshaves and rasps, I then shaped the contours of the fishes, knowing I would later add a layer of clay for surface details. Next I will cut the models into sections to make templates for the interior steel armatures, to be cut and welded at full scale, after approval by Artur Tan, our structural engineer. I’ve been enjoying working subtractively with wood in this way, and would love to do more purely sculptural work in wood, which lends itself so forgivingly to precise carving. The entire process has also been great practice for designing and making my radical board boat and shapes my thinking about future sculpture projects in general.

schematic sketch showing steel armature for the fish sculpture(s)

Tagged: contemporary art, craft, deep craft, public art, scott Constable, sculpture, woodworking, wowhaus

‘feeder fish’, like these anchovies abound this time of year (public domain image)

I’ve begun making the scale models for our giant, mosaic fish sculptures that will live permanently outside the new building for the Ocean View branch of the San Francisco Public Library. Funded by the San Francisco Arts Commission, the project is the latest wowhaus public art project, and continues our ongoing exploration of the role of watersheds in the habitat of a bioregion. The largest sculpture, about 8′ tall, is an homage to the tiny feeder fish that thrive along sandy shores within view of the library, particularly the California Grunion (Leuresthes tenuis), who are known to occasionally spawn on nearby beaches under the new and full moons during springtime.

California grunion (Leuresthes tenuis) spawn at night on beaches (public domain)

Ene and I like the idea of heroizing such an invisible but essential maritime food source, without which the web of life would collapse.  We think the concept of ‘feeder fish’ in general is an apt metaphor for the role of public libraries in a democracy. The second sculpture will be a stylized, scaled up version of the Vermilion Rockfish (Sebastes miniatus), still a familiar fish living close to shore that was once an important food source for the Coast Miwok and the early immigrants to San Francisco’s shores.

study for the steel armature for the 8′ high fish sculpture

Tagged: california flora, contemporary art, deep craft, innovation, public art, scott Constable, sustainability, wowhaus

concept sketch of the Space Chair for Becoming Independent

I’ve been commissioned to design tables and chairs for the youth of Becoming Independent, most of whom have developmental disabilities of varying degree. The seating structures will be used in a new playroom that doubles as a space for observation and evaluation, so the tables and chairs need to be very durable, safe, and easy to reconfigure by the people who use them. They also need to be inexpensive to produce while meeting the high aesthetic and ergonomic standards of the organization.

Over the next month, I will make the chairs out of locally-milled, air-dried Monterey cypress, which is strong, stable and has a pleasing amber glow when oiled and waxed. The joints will be mitered and fastened with the innovative Festool Domino system, and the backs will feature panel-on-frame construction, with panels designed and painted by the artists of Becoming Independent; the chairs will double as picture frames. The tables will be pentagonal in shape to encourage modularity and collaboration, with inlaid ’star’ patterns to go with the playroom theme of space. I look forward to working with Ann Westaway, Service Director of Art Works, and the talented people she works with daily.

Tagged: chair design, deep craft, festool, green woodworking, innovation, scott Constable, slow design, woodworking

Here the soils of daily washing
stay on the land, conveyed by gravity
through pipes to the leach fields
to join the earth of the tree duff,
filtering fresh rainfall to
replenish the dwelling well.

Meanwhile the ferrous field well
spews rustily over the garden,
adding a mineral edge to
the lusty bite of a tomato or
the lean green snap of a pole bean,
washed clean by the other water.

Tagged: appropriate technology, deep craft, poetry, scott Constable, slow design

sketch/proposal for the Expedition Cabinet

I have nothing against Fine Furniture, except that I typically favor the opposite. Give me a scavenged roadside pie safe over a Biedermeier sideboard any day. It’s not that I’m into ‘outsider art’ per se, or even collecting antiques, or that I find comfort in reverse snobbery. It’s just that I prefer when things are made with a kind of looseness, without compromising overall quality or durability. I love when a design allows for the inevitable nicks and grime of daily use as opposed to living in fear of the same. I guess I just don’t like fussing over details and appreciate when my living arrangement agrees. More important, I find that when the design and making of a piece of furniture is approached with an analogous philosophy of living, it translates.

This is my dilemma as I set out to make a series of Expedition Cabinets for exhibition and speculation. I resist the temptation to elevate my concept to the realm of contemporary art, mostly because I currently lack the venue. Consequently, I’m torn between developing a product that is accessible in a roadside, vernacular way, versus one that is a kind of physical record of the performance of its making and use. Formally, the end result will be about the same, but the price points may be inversely related. I’d rather make furniture that looks just fine, as opposed to making ‘fine furniture’.

Regardless, I plan to continue to develop the concept by eye, which is how I made the sketch above, unaided by measuring tools or straight-edges. I will use hand tools as much as possible and have the unit’s proportions and detailing be obviated by the constraints of time and material, in sync with the overall goal of finding delight in its making and use.

Tagged: aesthetics, campaign furniture, contemporary art, craft blog, deep craft, fine furniture, green design, scott Constable, vernacular, woodworking

In the powdered donut drawer,
a bank’s blue ballpoint pens.

Beneath the white pine floor
damp sand beds cedar cellar beams.

Above the front screen door,
the transom’s wavy pane’s trimmed,
pinned with enough loving imperfection

to shed a season’s rains in a blow,
sweetening the chamfered glow.

Tagged: deep craft, poem, scent memory, scott Constable

I made this sketch of a sixteenth century dining chair I saw at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The chair is thought to be either English or Scandinavian in origin, and we did see many like it at folk museums last summer while traveling around Norway and Estonia. The type is well suited for production on a human-powered pole lathe, like the one I designed for use at Mildred’s Lane, and might be a good starting point in developing a unique Chair for Mildred’s Lane in the future. I plan to experiment with the design as I complete my own pole lathe on the Wowhaus compound.

Tagged: chair design, deep craft, furniture design, mildred's lane, pole lathe, scandinavian design, scott Constable, wowhaus