Shellac is a natural by-product of the lac beetle’s secretions. Like so many craftsy kids who grew up in the 60’s and 70’s, I had my own rock polisher, a wood-burning set, access to my dad’s tools, collections of yarn and twine, old National Geographics, mucelage, rubber cement and shellac, and a basement, attic and […]
Tag Archives: green design
Furnishing Healdsburg Shed
Early sketch of my Shed Cafe Chair concept. I think of the new line of furniture I designed for Shed as belonging to the same extended family. Consisting of just four unique pieces- a café chair, a barstool, a ‘community’ table and a multi-use, ‘demonstration’ table, the line evolved slowly over the past two years, […]
Lakeside Green Streets Research
Ene and Aili chat it up with local residents on the shores of Lake Merritt. We’ve been spending a lot of time roaming the shores of Oakland’s Lake Merritt as we enter the research phase of our public art commission for the City of Oakland’s Lakeside Green Streets initiative. Our project is to be integrated […]
Deep Craft video
I’m proud to post the final episode of Kirsten Dirksen’s three part documentary she filmed in one day this past winter when she was visiting from Barcelona, home base for her company, faircompanies.com. This is my favorite one and I think it does a wonderful job of presenting the core of my Deep Craft philosophy. […]
House of Tree video
I’m very grateful to Kirsten Dirksen for making such an elegant little documentary about my House of Tree project, which she recently posted on her website, faircompanies.com. When she contacted me over the winter holidays about wanting to interview me about Deep Craft, wowhaus and House of Tree, I had not visited her website or […]
Deep Deck Mold
The two-part concrete mold is released from the plywood form. I’m building a hydraulic press to make cold-molded skateboard decks in anticipation of scaling up my production and capabilities. The first step is to build a form around a wooden ‘blank’ to support an investment of cast concrete. I took some time to make a […]
Hayride Revisited
My Hayride bench sits on top of a straw bale for outdoor events. It’s been close to ten years since I designed and prototyped my Hayride bench concept. The first batch was commissioned for the Children’s Garden at Copia, a cultural and educational venue in Napa. I’ve since made small batches of the design, improving […]