Grace prepares the chine logs for her portable catamaran project While the students continue to make admirable progress on their water craft, they are beginning to understand why I was so eager to encourage simplicity of design and execution early in the semester. I’ve made pains not to discourage anyone brave and bold enough to […]
Tag Archives: craft philosophy
Back to the Stump
Excerpt from ‘Afoot and Afloat’ by American naturalist John Burroughs. ‘A Summer Boating Trip’, Burroughs’ account of a boyhood adventure, was first published in 1881. You may read ‘Afoot and Afloat’ in its entirety here. //
Exuberant Frugality
We tested my Greens Chair at Greens Restaurant over a four course dinner On the eve of our first full week home after six weeks of travel, Ene, Aili and I celebrated with a prix fixe, four course dinner at Greens Restaurant in San Francisco. Mike Hale, Greens’ manager, generously comped the meal as a […]
The Legend of Lumberjack Surfing
The following text accompanies an installation I made as part of the NOMO Exhibition we’ve designed and curated as the culmination of our residency at Kohler Arts. Over the past few weeks I’ve made fictional, yet plausible sculptural elements that support the idea that surfing has origins on the Great Lakes. I will provide more […]
A Walking Song
sometimes I make up songs during a long walk There is no better design tool than a good long walk. It may not always lead to creative breakthroughs, but does reliably clear the noggin and put things in perspective. ivexterm in usa Before I begin to think about a particular project during a walk, I […]
Greet the Elders
Living and working in West Africa many years ago, we learned to Greet the Elders When Ene and I worked in West Africa as US Peace Corps Volunteers, we developed some habits that still inform our community-based projects. Principal among these is a kind of public ritual we call Greet the Elders. In remote villages, […]
In Praise of the Sawhorse
I made my ‘indoor sawhorses’ to double as a table base In all my years working with wood I’ve never felt the need to own or build a proper workbench. For a long time, I simply lacked the dedicated space and opted instead for working mostly outside, preferring to stage my work on sawhorses and […]