looking through the translucent, fiberglass/resin skin to the honeycombed, cardboard core of one of Mike Sheldrake’s prototype surfboards

In terms of the triad of beauty, performance and workmanship, Mike Sheldrake’s cardboard surfboards transcend the impressively vast exposition of mostly ‘DIY-for-DIY’s-sake’ projects and demonstrations at this year’s Maker Faire. Posing serenely amidst whirring gizmos and gadgets, the ultralight, translucent boards with the honey-combed, cardboard core struck me not just for their sublime simplicity, but because they were perhaps the only project making reference to the natural world. Their inspiration clearly derives from a desire to connect with the waves under one’s own power, by one’s own hand.

My friend Donald Fortescue and I toured the Maker Faire in San Mateo yesterday, grazing and gleaning as we spiraled around the perimeter fairgrounds into the core of airplane hanger-scale exhibition halls. We found ourselves fully saturated after a few hours and left for a picnic lunch by the salt flats overlooking the Bay. Donald, who chairs the wood/furniture program at California College of the Arts, lamented the conspicuous lack of connoisseurship guiding current trends in craft culture. I agreed, and would add: Things last when they are loved; things are loved when aesthetics drive the functional program from the moment of conception on.

I applaud the spirit of exuberant experimentation and decentralized invention sparked by the Maker Faire, but will be curious to see what emerges as a Future Classic as open source hacking shifts its focus to material culture.

Tagged: aesthetics, craft manifesto, DIY, donald fortescue, hacking, maker faire, mike sheldrake, open source, surfboard

elegant windlass at each pair of posts, framing a gateway

The only sounds punctuating my bike ride to the coast along the quiet, eight mile stretch of Valley Ford-Franklin School Road were the sweet song of the meadowlark perched on fence posts and the eerily creaking eucalyptus in the wind. As I climbed the long inclines south, between Estero Americano and the mouth of Tomales Bay, I made pause at each crest to catch my breath and sit for a while, staring out at the vast grazing land to either side before descending. I noticed how the ranchers have made breaks in the fencing at the high points, gateways large enough for a truck, framed by paired posts, typically joined and made strong by an elegantly simple windlass. Each rancher has his own style, and it seems a point of pride to not copy your neighbor. I found myself drawn to the older styles, evidenced by the patina on the wood and barbed wire, and the general economy of material (see above) and skill of execution. Along the way, I made note of these new blooms by the road:

black locust

eucalyptus

a typical ‘culvert bouquet’

Tagged: aesthetics, bicycle tour, deep craft, phenology, scott Constable, sonoma coast, windlass

The road from Valley Ford to Two Rock is flanked by furrowed fields of freshly mowed hay, ready for baling. Pretty soon the barns will be stocked to the rafters with sweet hay, elucidating their proportional relationship to the fields they occupy. Craftwork begins with the localization of supply and demand; contentment begins with their balance.

Tagged: aesthetics, craft, hay, sonoma coast

naturalist/essayist John Burroughs

In preparation for my residency and lecture at Mildred’s Lane late next month, I’ve been studying the upper Delaware River, reading about its history and looking at maps. I was struck by a passage by the nineteenth century American naturalist/essayist John Burroughs, describing a boyhood trip down the Delaware in his book Afoot and Afloat, originally published in 1871. He had just built his own boat for the journey:

“The boat-building warmed the blood; it made the germ take; it whetted my appetite for the voyage. There is nothing like serving an apprenticeship to fortune, like earning the right to your tools. In most enterprises the temptation is always to begin too far along; we want to start where somebody else leaves off. Go back to the stump, and see what an impetus you get. Those fishermen who wind their own flies before they go a-fishing, -how they bring in the trout; and those hunters who run their own bullets or make their own cartridges, -the game is already mortgaged to them.”

the upper Delaware River, at Narrowsburg, PA

Mildred’s Lane is a few miles to the Southwest of Narrowsburg, PA, on a stream that connects to the Delaware River. Burroughs began his journey further upstream and to the East, on the Pepacton branch of the river, now the Pepacton Reservoir.  If time allowed, I would love to build a boat and recreate Burroughs’ boyhood voyage during my residency. As it is, my project will focus on the watershed ecology surrounding Mildred’s Lane, encouraging students to “Go back to the stump”.

Tagged: conservation, deep craft, delaware river, john burroughs, mildred's lane, scott Constable

Red Hot Poker (Kniphofia uvaria) brightens roadside culverts

Clusters of California poppy, red hot poker and wild pea brightened roadside culverts and hay barns as we cycled the Bodega Highway to the coast through a light morning fog. The lupin grow yellow around the contours of Bodega Head, a rocky bluff that juts out into the Pacific to the West of Bodega Bay.

The lupin grow purple further up the coast

Further up the coast, the lupin grow purple, where they thrive along deer trails by the mouth of the Russian River, where we hiked through a steep cypress grove to a high coastal meadow overlooking the River to the East and the fogged-in Pacific to the West.

looking East towards the lower Russian River

Of the dozens of wildflowers in bloom here this time of year, here are several that caught my eye, most of which I have not yet identified: Continue Reading »

Tagged: aesthetics, bicycle touring, Bodega Bay, bodega head, pacific coast highway, phenology, Russian river, sonoma coast

mowing the high meadow grasses

One of my favorite tools is our hand-pushed, mulching mower. As with all of my favorite tools, I like the physical activity and related mental state associated with using it as much if not more than the end result. Mowing the Meadow is a great excuse for taking a long walk and getting to know the contours of the land while performing routine maintenance- what’s growing where, gopher and insect activity, the condition of the soil.

Upon my return from installing our lenticular mural project in Oakland I was pleased to find the meadows about three feet high with a mix of fescue grasses and wild flowers, all still green but beginning to go to seed. I have a Briggs and Stratton mulching mower that chops the cuttings, returning them to the soil as added shade and nutrient-rich cover for the long dry summer to come. Eventually, we plan to have a goat or two do the mowing, and to cultivate at least one meadow with flowers and vegetables. Meanwhile, I’ll enjoy the chore as a welcome tonic to the headier tasks of proposal making, design and shopwork currently at our threshold.

Mowing also helps me to process recent events, which are all on the upswing this spring. Our lenticular mural project has been very well received upon completion earlier this week, making the local NBC News and the front page of the Oakland Tribune. I send deep thanks out to Dan Cohen and Jordan Pierce of Full Court Press, who facilitated public relations for the project, and to our friend Shawn Connally, managing editor of MAKE magazine, who recently posted a glowing profile of Wowhaus on the Craftzine blog.

Tagged: craftzine, deep craft, full court press, lenticular mural, make magazine, scott Constable, shawn connally, wowhaus

Lake Merritt, looking towards the Northeast

James and I completed the lenticular murals yesterday by clear-coating them with a  protective, anti-graffiti glaze. Touching every square inch of the surface of the images reminded me how much the tiles have been handled over the past eight months, how much care has gone into realizing a hand made structure at this scale. It seemed an appropriate finale to wash them over with a final clear wash, kind of like a baptism.

At the end of the day I took a final reconnaissance tour of Lake Merritt as Ene and I think about designing a system of watershed markers for the City of Oakland. Lake Merritt has been my quiet obsession during the past month’s installation, and I continue to be fascinated with its impact on the culture of the city and its environment.

mapping the old oaks

This time around I took note of as many old oak trees as I could see from the pathways, and began to make a map of their positions relative to the lake and closest intersecting roads. I also took notice of a surprising number of churches surrounding the lake, and thought how we could potentially activate their congregations to help learn about the watershed and its natural/cultural ecology. Maybe a church could ‘adopt’ a stream or an old tree..

The Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland, CA

Tagged: deep craft, estuary, lake merritt, Oakland, scott Constable, watershed ecology, wowhaus