One of the cool things about craft production is that it does not respond to markets so much as do away with them altogether- supply and demand are localized in both space and time. When in the service of self-sufficiency, production is not only localized but scaled in response to some form of human […]
Category Archives: material provenance
Estero Americano Floods
I rode my bike to scout the Estero Americano over the weekend, the body of water dividing Western Marin and Sonoma counties. Almost exactly a year ago I made my first post on this weblog after a paddle on the Estero to explore the availability of sea grasses like bulrush for a furniture-making experiment. I’ve […]
Elm
My favorite woods have three letter names- elm, oak, ash and fir. These names have been so repeated over the centuries, they have been polished smooth like river stones- extra syllables or letters are superfluous to their meaning. The trees themselves are thought to have magical origins, with deep roots in the collective consciousness, and […]
Driftwood Symposium
I’ve been collecting driftwood over the past couple of years and organizing it according to its general type (girth, length, curvature, species) and the frequency with which it can typically be found on stretches of beach near the mouth of the Russian River. I’d like to expand upon my collecting, make a kind of a […]
Windsor Redux
“Windsor”, wood burning on oak veneer by Joshua Miner III I’ve always loved traditional Windsor chairs, as much for their structural invention as for their comfort, durability and elegance. The general form evolved regionally throughout the UK in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Many speculate that the chair originated as a byproduct of the charcoal-making […]
Among the Redwoods
Sequoia sempervirens Spending time among the Northern California coastal redwoods can be equally inspiring and disquieting. The trees have a presence that exceeds their scale in both time and space. The forests are supremely silent, supporting little habitat for creatures that produce sound. how often can you give ivermectin to dogs The redwoods exude a […]
Kelp Report
Late winter storms have deposited heaps of bull kelp along the shores over the past week. I had some success experimenting with kelp as a material for furniture last year but am not yet ready to take advantage of its availability in production. I’d love to hear from anyone who has seen kelp used in […]