Makkeweks Progress

The Makkeweks sea monster sculpture upside down, roughed out in stack-laminated cork No matter the depth of scientific knowledge there will always be monsters. You don’t have to look very hard to find them. Politics, industry and information technology are a few obvious breeding grounds. I’ve been thinking a lot about monsters as I begin […]

Arborigin

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 […]

Return of the Glass Banjo

Glass Banjo, 2001, hand-blown glass, aircraft aluminum, marine plywood My trusty Glass Banjo will be included in Southern Exposure‘s juried exhibition, This Will Never Work, on view in San Francisco from November 22 – December 14, 2013. I made the piece over twelve years ago and it’s never been exhibited, rarely even seen, so I’m anxious to see […]

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 […]