Pappy likes to repair things, preferably without spending money, using things diligently saved and gleaned, collected in coffee cans and baby food jars. Pappy is a uniquely American archetype, a perennially frugal character forged by hardship, perseverance and optimism. We all hopefully still have a little bit of Pappy in us. ????? ????? Between projects […]
Tag Archives: aesthetics
Rigorous Fun
After a day of rides at the amusement park with my daughter and her friend, my last thought on the last day of her summer vacation before the first day of the first year of high school, goes something like, structural rigor is most robust when in the service of Fun.
Craftitude
Just as clothes suggest a particular attitude or posture, tools lend themselves to a certain stance and reinforce a way of moving. The appropriate outfit complements the set of tools required for a sequence of moves, and ‘craft’ becomes a performance tailored to the task at hand. ????? ?????? ??? ???? I find myself creating […]
Apricots and Ponderosa
Looking south over the gorge towards the Seven Devils and the Wallowa Mountains from the tinder dry, high prairie of northeastern Oregon, you’d hardly expect to find apricots and blackberries growing along the banks of the Imnaha as you descend over rocky terrain, past tall stands of Ponderosa pine. Dense pine forests still rim the […]
A Wholesome Chair
modified Windsor chair concept with steam-bent, bundled parts Most of my furniture design over the past ten years or so has developed either from a particular need or from the properties of a particular material, usually wood. Lately I’ve been wanting to broaden my target by channeling my resources into the creation of a signature […]
Casting in Bronze
pouring molten bronze into molds for our series of sculptures for Sunnyside Conservatory in San Francisco We were thrilled to witness the bronze casting of our series of sculptures for the Sunnyside Conservatory Menagerie yesterday at Berkeley’s Artworks Foundry. It has been an honor to collaborate with artisans skilled in the ancient art of lost […]
Future Classic?
looking through the translucent, fiberglass/resin skin to the honeycombed, cardboard core of one of Mike Sheldrake’s prototype surfboards In terms of the triad of beauty, performance and workmanship, Mike Sheldrake’s cardboard surfboards transcend the impressively vast exposition of mostly ‘DIY-for-DIY’s-sake’ projects and demonstrations at this year’s Maker Faire. Posing serenely amidst whirring gizmos and gadgets, […]