We met a kid drumming to the setting sun over Portuguese Beach

Craving some time out of time to relax and refresh, we traipsed up the coast, rambled along riparian paths of redwood and red alder to remote gulches and beaches, snoozing, snacking and staring into the waves. We had a Now Day, checked our concerns at the door and followed our noses into the open air of a perfect October day. I had forgotten how when you drop into the zone of a heightened Now, you tend to find simpatico souls. Living in West Africa, we would find entire villages whose primary occupation was to trouvez la joie; “On doit partager la joie!”. While this may not be the best strategy for productivity, it sure makes for happy times, and the days invariably transition into night with everyone gathered around open fires, drumming and dancing. No amount of wealth can replicate such shared contentment in the moment. Sure enough, we found some kindred spirits on our journey into the day, most notably a kid who set up his sparkly red trap kit on a bluff overlooking Portuguese Beach, offering up a bop-brushy soundtrack to the setting sun.

Tagged: aesthetics, craft philosophy, deep craft, sonoma coast, wowhaus

cast iron relief sculpture on the sides of my woodshop stove

The little outbuilding I recently converted to a dedicated woodshop has a small cast iron stove. After installing a new roof with a pair of solatubes, the interior light is much brighter and I finally got a good look at the romantic scene relief-cast into the stove’s two long flanks, which I’ve scraped clean of most rust and built-up grime. Depicting a young couple, gesturing towards the mountain peaks arm in arm, the relief reminds me of a photograph of Ene and me at our wedding under a tent on the banks of the Hudson.

Ene and my ‘first dance’ at our wedding on the Hudson in August, 1989

As we enter the season of crisp clear days and frosty nights, and I get into a rhythm making morning fires to warm the woodshop and plunge into the daily rituals of planning projects and preparing my stock, I’m happily reminded of the larger scale motivations underlying the busywork comprising the day, and its cumulative effect, the dance of life.

Tagged: craft philosophy, deep craft, scott Constable, woodworking, wowhaus

Coffee Table in Paradox Walnut, 7′L x 30″W x 20″H

My brother in law recently commissioned a coffee table for my sister’s 50^th birthday. The table was to be the centerpiece of the ample living room of a large house they recently moved to outside of Philadelphia, to be situated in front of a nine foot sofa opposite a grand, stone fireplace.

The challenge for me has been to design and make a table that compliments both the open, contemporary plan of their new home, a converted carriage house with large interior volumes, and the more traditional profile of their existing furnishings. They wanted the table to have a certain formality for entertaining, while being relaxed enough to accommodate and encourage daily lounging- the table needed to double as an ottoman and auxiliary dining table, without too much worry about supporting the inevitable feet up, dishes and glasses, reading materials and such. I also embraced the challenge of making a piece of furniture with a distinctly Californian provenance that worked in the fairly traditional interior of a home in my native Philadelphia. Most important, I relished the opportunity of making a beloved family heirloom for my older sister that will feature so prominently in the daily life of her family.

I styled the top to suggest a vintage, ‘egg’ surfboard

To support a conversational ring of seating surrounding the table, I opted for an oblong oval, and based the shape of the top on vintage surfboards known as ‘eggs’, knowing the reference would not go unnoticed by my brother in law and two nieces, all avid surfers. I made the entire table of wood milled locally from the same tree, a Paradox Walnut I had been saving for just the right thing for over a decade. The top is laminated from two solid, book-matched slabs, measuring about 7’ x 30” by 1.75” thick. Further obviating the surfboard theme, the top has a gentle figure, reminiscent of lapping waves. I referenced traditional Chinese furniture in the proportions and unadorned styling of the base, giving a nod to the influence of Asian art in both contemporary ‘studio furniture’ and late colonial furniture design. The base gains structure and functionality with the addition of a slatted shelf beneath the tabletop, a place to stow books and magazines, keeping the top clear and strikingly visible.

The rack beneath adds both structure and functionality

This is the second coffee table off the bench, and I thank my brother in law for prompting my thinking about this form of furniture. Coffee tables have such a rich history, and feature so prominently in American homes, I’ve become somewhat obsessed, and plan to make a series exploring possibilities for innovation within the form. My research has taught me that ‘coffee tables’ first appeared in public life in England in the 16^th century, along with coffee, in coffee houses inspired by exchange with the Ottoman Empire.

Known as ‘one-penny-universities’, English coffee houses of the 16^th century were popular public meeting places where ideas were exchanged around low tables recalling those used by bedouin traders. A century later, the form morphed into portable ‘tea tables’ in aristocratic circles, reflecting the new-found popularity of tea, following colonization of India. Beginning in the Victorian era, low tables came into vogue in domestic interiors throughout Europe and America, heralding the emergence of a sophisticated, middle class with the leisure, dedicated space and time to host public gatherings at home.

The form has remained a ubiquitous staple of family life ever since, with subtle variations in styling to adapt to new materials, technologies and patterns of use along the way- radio, TV, laptops, etc, but the primary function of providing a place for convivial gathering has remained constant. I’ve become an enthusiastic advocate for encouraging the role of coffee tables in domestic life, and am very grateful that my brother in law had the insight and trust to commission my first. Thanks, Jeff!

Tagged: coffee table, craft philosophy, deep craft, furniture design, innovation, scott Constable, studio furniture, woodworking, wowhaus

My friend Sean Gavin mills logs on site with his portable Wood-Mizer

I spent an action-packed weekend milling my first tree, a mature pecan (Carya Illinoensis) that grew in the sandy soil of a nearby horse pasture. The tree was beginning to die and had been dropping large branches, threatening the safety of the horses. The property owner decided to take the tree down and I worked with my friend Kevin Paul, a local arborist, to devise a cutting strategy to optimize the wood for on-site milling. I then hired Sean Gavin’s portable mill and worked closely with Sean and a few friends milling sections of the trunk and large diameter branches to my specifications.

Kevin felled the pecan tree into a neighboring pasture for ease of access

Belonging to the hickory family, pecan is notoriously hard, even when green, and the cutting was tough on Sean’s blades. To make matters worse, we hit pockets of nails embedded in the main trunk on several occasions, probably the remains of a treehouse early in the life of the sixty year old tree. Despite the challenges we managed to mill well over one thousand board feet of wood in two short days, and I have a goodly stockpile of pecan wood ready to sticker up in the barn to dry.

We brought in the heavy guns to load the main trunk, weighing about 6000 pounds

I plan to use the smaller branch stock for a project I’m developing for Shed in Healdsburg, and will save the large slabs for future experiments in furniture-making. Measuring up to 16′ long and 2.5″ thick, the large slabs will take over two years to air-dry, which will give me ample time to develop a new line of tables and other furnishings that take advantage of the material’s inherent attributes. Like most hickories, pecan has a pale, creamy sapwood with streaks of honey and light brown, and a dark brown heartwood. Known for its extreme hardness, strength and durability, pecan is prized for making utilitarian items like tool handles, baseball bats, crates and pallets.

the upper trunk, boule cut to 2.5″ slabs

dark brown heartwood contrasts with the tree’s pale sapwood

The process of milling and curing my own material brings me one step closer to realizing my dream of managing a true, artisan scale, craft production, optimizing the capabilities of our rural studio compound. The next step will be to develop a marketing strategy to sell my wares in sync with the Deep Craft ethos. What’s most exciting to me is the challenge of reverse-engineering ‘design’ around the constraints of scale, site and local relationships, and enjoying every step of the process.

leaf and fruit of the pecan tree (Carya Illinoensis)

Tagged: aesthetics, california flora, craft philosophy, deep craft, furniture design, green woodworking, scott Constable, sonoma coast, watershed, wood-mizer, woodworking

The first in a series of coffee tables, a lozenge-shaped slab, 30″ x 72″ x 16.5″ high

I’ve begun making a series of coffee tables, encouraged by a recent commission from my brother in law to make one for my sister’s 50th birthday later this month. It’s always easier to make things in small multiples, with variation in material, proportion and construction style. I had honestly never given much thought to the idea of a coffee table, but am discovering that it’s the perfect form to experiment with some new ideas. I also like that the coffee table is inherently casual, functioning as a site for dining, reading, writing, as a footrest and even as seating. Plus, I have a stockpile of wood I’ve been saving that is ideally suited to the task.

The first table to come off the bench is for our own use, a lozenge-shaped monster I cut from a solid slab of locally-milled Monterey cypress, three inches thick. The table has bent wire legs I salvaged from a 1950’s era production table that I plan to tool up to replicate in my shop. To me, the table bridges a Southern Californian ethos of casual modernism with a North Californian ethos of forest stewardship and artisanry.

I like the ordinariness of the grain pattern; you can feel the girth of the tree

I like any piece of furniture to have a stance, an attitude

Tagged: aesthetics, coffee table, deep craft, furniture design, scott Constable, sonoma coast, woodworking, wowhaus

distant foam line of the giant wave crashing off of Bodega Head

Every so often the storms conjure a giant wave off of Bodega Head, breaking right and left on either side of Bodega Rock, sometimes cresting all the way to the buoy, halfway to Tomales Bluff. This makes for an occasionally treacherous passage for Bodega Bay fishermen and is one reason why the traditional double-ender still prevails. In a following sea, I’ve heard of transom boats backing into the Bay from offshore, unable to outrun the wave, positioning the bow to negotiate a breaker. Although notoriously sharky, on days like today the break looks ridable, I’d guess about double overhead, although I have yet to see anyone paddle out.

I was lucky to catch a rainbow rising above Bodega Head

satellite view of Bodega Head, Bodega Rock and the entry to Bodega Bay harbor.

Tagged: Bodega Bay, california coast, deep craft, sonoma coast, surfing

Fog Study 1

Fog Study 2

Fog Study 3

Fog Study 4

Sand Pattern 1

Sand Pattern 2

Apart from the redwoods, who loom at silent attention, the fog is the most distinguishing feature of our stretch of coastline. I think of the fog as redwood’s muse, a gargantuan creature, shy but willful, overly self-conscious, always in retreat, backing into things and blotting out the sun, dripping with embarrassment, seeking solitude.

Tagged: aesthetics, california coast, deep craft, fog, sonoma coast