Bull Kelp Experiment 1

It is High Spring on the Sonoma Coast and I’m finding my interest in woven structures is shared by birds, whose nests are literally dropping from trees with the afternoon winds from an unseasonably high barometric pressure. My initial experiments with bull kelp were a success. Wrapped around a tapered round of driftwood, the material […]

Dairy Barn Chair

I discovered this chair in an abandoned dairy barn in Tomales, California, among artifacts from a formerly productive cattle ranch just down the coast in West Marin County. It is a good example of “maintenance equals improvement” in that the original rush-woven seat has been replaced by a woven leather seat improvised by the deceased […]

Bulrush of the Estuary

I’d like to make a chair whose materials all come from within walking distance of where it is made. We live in West Sonoma County, California, on the Salmon Creek watershed. Ideally, I’d like to find a market within this bio-region as well, including the surrounding watersheds of Tomales Bay and the Russian River for […]