Bodger’s camp in the Chiltern beech woods, late 19th century (from The English Regional Chair, Bernard D. Cotton, Antique Collector’s Club, 1990) The strategy behind my residency at Mildred’s Lane will be multi-tiered, ranging from the development of a working, craft production facility on site to the promotion and marketing of Goods to be produced, […]
Category Archives: material provenance
Geography of Craft
map of the bioregions relating to the Delaware River and its tributaries, including portions of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Virginia and Maryland (from The Encyclopedia of Earth) As a woodworker, I make a habit of studying the bioregion for site specific projects to get a sense of scale and context, with an eye […]
Watersheds and Bioregions
The Alluvial Valley of the Lower Mississippi River, map 6/15, Army Corps of Engineers, 1944, Harold Fisk, chief cartographer Documenting the seasonal cycles over the past few months (see my Week in Bloom postings) has me thinking a lot about bioregions and watersheds as the most appropriate scale for human interaction with the natural world […]
Shanty Boats and Scow Schooners
the scow schooner Annie L, built in 1900 by Emil Munder, unloading hay in San Francisco As hay bales begin to dot the fields I’m reminded how little the landscape of West Sonoma County has changed since the late 19th century, when scow schooners still sailed down the rivers to deliver cargoes of hay, timber […]
Making Hay
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 […]
Grove of Old Trees
I’ve always been drawn to old trees. We live on the edge of a redwood forest (Sequoia sempervirens), an ancient species that still dominates the coast of Northern California, despite relentless logging over the past 150 years. We have about 60 second growth redwood trees on our property, some already reaching a height exceeding 200 […]
Le Forgeron
Most villages in the Bassar region of Togo, West Africa, still had a blacksmith when Ene and I lived there briefly about 20 years ago. Our friend, Innocent (above) was Le Forgeron de Guerrin-Kouka, the market town where we lived. Although iron smelting had been in steady decline since Colonial times, it was still practiced […]