I feel like Mr Hulot when I need to transition from studio craft to a business mode. In craft work, quality is the result of acting in a way to increase the likelihood of desired outcomes. A maker is an active agent in each step of the process of bringing something into being, where every […]
Category Archives: daily handwork
Flotsam of the Day
I’ve always liked to use chalk when roughing things out on wood. Lately I’ve taken to scouring the beaches during negative low tides in search of seashells for making my marks. kup scabo ??????? ??? ???? The Pacific Razor Clam is ideal, softer than the East Coast equivalent, but hard enough to make a clean […]
Shuffling the Tree
I can relate to the work style of a 1930’s American cabinet shop (public domain) After over a year of design development with the architect and client, selecting logs of deodar cedar and having them custom milled and cured to outfit the interior of a new guest house down the coast, I’m regaining perspective on […]
Postcard from Sayulita
Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico Spending time in Sayulita always restores my faith in humanity. For whatever combination of reasons- its remoteness through jungle along the Pacific Coast, cut-off from major roads until relatively recently; its consistently overhead, left/right break; its laid back balance of bohemian surf culture and traditional fishing village- everyone is unabashedly happy in […]
Balancing the Brain
At a certain scale, production woodwork requires a lot of time spent physically sorting and grading material, then processing it through a sequence of noisy machinery. It can be dull, monotonous work, but I still get a thrill watching grain patterns emerge and generally enjoy the physical labor as a kind of meditation. I find […]
Flotsam of the Day
someone left a rose in a driftwood log I can’t think of a better way to recalibrate after an intense week of studio woodworking than a morning of beachcombing after a string of storms. I appreciate more and more living and working so close to the shore, and find daily release and inspiration being able […]
Ene’s Arbor Day
rows of mature olive trees at the Urban Tree Farm (photo: Ene Osteraas-Constable) I’ve asked Ene to write an occasional post for Deep Craft, and am proud to share her first story (all text and images by Ene Osteraas-Constable): I greet the deluge of the season’s first heavy rains with relief and contentment, knowing that […]