With enough rainfall, Estero Americano drains to the sea, becoming seasonally tidal My favorite chair, by far, is an ocean kayak. To unwind after an intense week of new projects, I spent a quiet afternoon idly paddling down Estero Americano, my favorite local slough, now flooded to the coast. The marshy, seasonally tidal estuary is […]
Tag Archives: craft philosophy
Touching the Wood
My projects always begin with sorting the pile, touching the wood Like cooking, working with wood engages all of the senses in symphony. Touch plays a major role in the early stages of a project, especially at the scale of fitting out the interior of a new building, like the Guest House that now requires […]
Conveying a Load
the underside of this pallet reminds me of a Mayan city At some point when making a sculpture or piece of furniture, my job is simply to convey a load to the ground. The perennial challenge is to invent or interpret a structural program that gets the job done but adds something new in the […]
The Value of Apprenticeship
the house I built with George Smith, Germantown, NY, 1988-89 I’m a strong believer in apprenticeship as a paradigm for learning anything. Much of what I have put into practice in woodcraft and architecture I owe to my friend and mentor, George Smith of Tivoli, New York, with whom I worked side by side building […]
Boatbuilding the Fish Sculptures
Boat-Building on the Stour, oil on canvas by John Constable, 1814-15 People who know me well are not surprised by my obsession with wooden boatbuilding. Though I’ve completed just one actual boat, each year I’m gripped with boat fever, especially during the winter months, when I scan plans and dream of the perfect cruise, surveying […]
The Week in Bloom
Hachiya persimmon are ripening early this year The raccoons have commenced their furtive nighttime raids on the persimmon tree, whose fruits are prematurely ripe by a few weeks. We’re still trying to figure out how best to use the hundreds of Hachiya persimmon produced by our single tree each winter, and have been picking and […]
Wowhaus Interview
photo by Jenny Elia Pfeiffer for the December ’09 issue of San Francisco Magazine I’m already fielding inquiries for dining tables after the publication of an interview with Ene and me in the December issue of San Francisco Magazine, written by Joanne Furio. The interview is called ‘We Gather Together’ and it unpacks our approach […]