Excerpt from ‘Afoot and Afloat’ by American naturalist John Burroughs. ‘A Summer Boating Trip’, Burroughs’ account of a boyhood adventure, was first published in 1881. You may read ‘Afoot and Afloat’ in its entirety here.
{ Monthly Archives: November 2010 }
Deep Deck for Shadowshop
I photographed my new Deep Deck overlooking Tomales Bay on my way to SFMOMA
I delivered the first in a series of Deep Deck skateboards to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art yesterday, where they will be on display as part of Stephanie Syjoco’s Shadowshop project, opening on Novemver 20 through May 1, 2011. Below are a montage of images and text that will be displayed alongside the Deep Deck, which I will be custom making to order for the duration of the exhibition:
The Deep Deck is the first in a line of bioregional products by Deep Craft, a hybrid brand-movement-ethos developed by artist/designer Scott Constable.
The Deep Deck concept emerged from Constable’s diversified efforts to create a regional vernacular of sustainability, tapping the unique physical and cultural geography of the Sonoma Coast and San Francisco Bay bioregions. Studio investigations and field research are archived on Constable’s deepcraft.org site, culminating in his ongoing Deep Craft manifesto.
Each Deep Deck is handcrafted according to an individual’s bodytype and riding style, utilizing unique native Californian hardwoods culled from ‘horticultural salvage’.
For Shadowshop, the Deep Deck is being produced as a limited edition, numbered series in American Elm (ulmus Americana) with wood milled from a cache of reclaimed street trees characteristic of the urban forest. Styled after the classic longboard borrowed from surf culture, Deep Deck is designed mainly for cruising and transportation, but is well suited to carving a gentle country slope, or simply hanging on a wall. To discuss a commission, please contact Scott directly at scott@deepcraft.org.
Micro-Expedition, Sessions 8 and 9
Jack and Willey broke out the hand planes to joint a long stringer of Sitka spruce
The boats are shaping up and the students are getting fired up for our journey next month. Here’s a little gallery from the past two weeks of Micro-Expedition, the Atelier Studio I am teaching this semester at CCA as the Wornick Distinguished Visiting Professor of Wood Arts: Continue Reading »
An Exploratory Paddle down the Estero
Idyllic launch where Estero Americano meanders along ranches below Valley Ford
Over the weekend I made an exploratory paddle down Estero Americano to the coast. The tides are in a similar phase as the dates of our planned Expedition, so I wanted to make a trial run to see what the CCA students might expect in terms of timing and conditions as we begin to plan our voyage. With minimal preparation or provisions, it took me just under 2 hours to paddle a yellow 12′ plastic kayak about 6 miles one way without stopping. For the first leg, the narrow slough winds through grazing meadows and marsh, rife with ring-necked duck, egret and coot.
I chased a flock of ring-necked duck to the open water
Before opening up to a broad channel where I first encountered a light but steady headwind, the water was a still, copper brown from agricultural run-off. The open chop revealed floating stands of kelp and sea weed, indicating the beginnings of a tidal surge from the sea after early rains. Sea gulls, hawks and heron displaced the ducks and the water took on the frothier, oxygenated blue-green of the sea. About half a mile from the coast I heard the roar of a beach break, bucked a weak tidal flow, and encountered frolicking otter and curious sea lion.
first glimpse of the beach break along the Pacific, where the Estero drains at high tide
I beached the boat about 1/4 mile from the mouth where Estero Americano seasonally drains to the Pacific and hiked to scout the shoreline for natural shelter from wind and wave. My tide log showed that the six and a half foot high tide had just peaked, but waves were still washing over the dunes into the brackish waters of the Estero. I spent about an hour exploring the dunes and climbing rocky cliffs to get a glimpse of the shoreline before the fog rolled in, signaling my departure. With a slight tailwind, I paddled back to the launch in about an hour and a half, despite my muscle fatigue and the enclosing fog. Continue Reading »
Shed Metrics
My Shed Chair concept was inspired by fences built by local frugal farmers
I’ve been paying particularly close attention to the vernacular forms of Sonoma County’s family scale agriculture- the fences, coops, crates and outbuildings associated with our region’s numerous orchards, ranches and vineyards. My friend Cindy Daniel is in the process of realizing an innovative, hybrid retail/cafe/event space in Healdsburg called Shed, for which she has commissioned me to design furnishings.
I’m truly inspired by her vision for an energy efficient, two-story, seasonally open-air building sited along Foss Creek, housing a ground floor garden center, deli, community ‘larder’, cafe, and upstairs restaurant and space for events and performance. Shed will be a modern interpretation of the time-honored General Store or Grange, featuring the artisanal foods, goods and services of local purveyors. The building, an ultra efficient pre-engineered metal structure is designed by Mark Jensen of Jensen Architects in San Francisco. I’m honored to be working closely with such a visionary team, and have been enjoying developing a language for the furnishings that resonates with Cindy’s sophisticated take on Sonoma County living, and bridges the high modernist utilitarianism of Jensen’s building.
1/4 scale model of a dining chair and table concept I’m developing for Shed.
The major challenge of designing furnishings that range from retail display to dining has been in inventing a structure system that allows for low cost flexibility, durability and variability, while telling a story and making a memorable, unique experience. The furnishings need to reinforce the Shed ‘brand’. As I research ready-made systems to appropriate for retail display, I’ve begun to experiment with chair and table concepts, knowing that it will be easier to have these inform, rather than be informed by, the look/feel of the ready-mades. The dining furniture is sure to evolve, but I like the basic idea of a chair that stacks into a sculptural column when stored in the space, and a table that transforms into a low, Japanese style version, using the chair’s cushions for seating.
The upper portion of the Shed Table concept converts to a low version, using the chair’s cushions for a more ‘Eastern’ dining experience.