Artist Mark Brest van Kempen explains his water catchment/recycling system We spent an inspiring evening yesterday at the home of our friend Mark Brest van Kempen, an Oakland-based artist whose work “draws our attention to nature’s role as source, setting and savior“. Mark’s house and studio are a kind of living laboratory nestled in the […]
Tag Archives: green design
Giant Eucalyptus
Taking a break under a giant bluegum eucalyptus on Whitaker Bluff The eucalyptus was planted extensively throughout California by Australians during the Gold Rush for use as timber. They mistakenly thought the wood to be well suited for railroad ties, but the trees took differently to the soil and tended to grow in spirals, 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 […]
Geography of Craft
map of the bioregions relating to the Delaware River and its tributaries, including portions of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Virginia and Maryland (from The Encyclopedia of Earth) As a woodworker, I make a habit of studying the bioregion for site specific projects to get a sense of scale and context, with an eye […]
Windsor Longboard Lives
My first Windsor Longboard experimental deck is a head-turner. My friends at Quinn Brothers Board Shop in Sebastopol, CA took to the ‘uber old school’ spirit and helped me rock the deck with super wide trucks and generic wheels; note the ‘rasta’ bolt heads, the board’s only fanfare. After some road testing I plan to […]
Windsor Longboard
clamping the deck’s laminates over a contoured armature for camber I made good progress with my longboard skatedeck experiment. I built a clamping armature with a gradual contour to give the deck adequate camber, over-compensating slightly for the inevitable ‘springback’. I reversed the camber at the tail of the deck to lift the rear of […]