Part of my ongoing experiment here is to develop high quality, low cost furniture from local materials for a local market. I recently paid a visit to Berry’s Sawmill near Cazadero to check out their operation and inventory and was delighted to find an authentic, family-run mill cutting sustainable yield redwood and Douglas fir from […]
Category Archives: studio process
Ideal States of Comfort
I was reading Ulla Maaria’s recent column “Renting is the New Buying” where she referred to a survey she had made among students about what ‘luxury’ meant to them. The results helped to reinforce her larger point regarding assumptions we make about what constitutes well-being, “Instead of associating luxury with money or any imaginable form […]
Bay Copse
In our region the Bay Laurel grows prolifically in the understory of second growth Coast Redwood. When mature, the tree can grow quite large and shapely and its wood has a rich, nutty brown grain I use frequently because of its availability and versatility. Yet the Bay Laurel is considered by many a weed. what […]
Election Day Bed
I spent Election Day in the shop making a pencil post bed as a distraction from the culmination of my combined worry and excitement for the returns of the day.The bed will occupy the ‘Outlaw’, our guest home/vacation rental where my parents will be living when they arrive next week from Philadelphia for an extended […]
First Rains
The first rains have arrived and Ene planted a cover crop of fava beans as a soil amendment and delicious late winter staple. Our garden was devastated by deer over the summer while we were travelling, but we were able to harvest a few pumpkins, acorn squash and late season chiles that survived the onslaught. […]
Saving Seeds with Alex Quinto
Ene harvested the last of our tomatoes and tomatillos, which she had let over-ripen on the vine to to make it easier to squeeze out the seeds. Our friend Alex Quinto was visiting for the day and helped Ene with the seed saving. Alex is the co-founder of Work Worth Doing and has lived for […]
Hum of Home
We’ve had a rare stretch of balmy clear nights and I find myself seduced into staying up late to watch the stars and be lulled by the polyrhythm of crickets and the smell of the watered garden tinged with redwood trees still breathing the morning fog. We’ve heard peeper frogs during the rainy season since […]