my new banjo is a cherry condition, 1975 Iida, made in Japan, with an aluminum body I bought a new banjo today as a tribute to Warren Hellman, who passed away late yesterday. My family was lucky to get to know Warren around the time he formed the band The Wronglers with Ene’s sister and […]
Tag Archives: wowhaus
Tsuru Update: Carving the Crane
My 9′ wooden crane sculpture shapes up in the studio. One of the reasons I opted to carve the giant crane for our Tsuru Project in wood is that I get truer contours when shaping grain; there’s a dialogue between the material and the form and the shape just emerges as I slowly shave away […]
A Trip to the Foundry
cast bronze sections of our Fluke sculpture are welded together over a steel armature We paid a visit to Berkeley’s Artworks Foundry to inspect our Fluke sculpture as it nears completion. The foundry is doing an exquisite job fabricating the sculpture, which they will also install in Santa Cruz after the footing is poured and […]
Flotsam of the Day
short-tailed albatross skull, found at Doran Beach One of the delights of daily beach-combing is how the tides always seem to churn up something new to suit the mood, especially after a storm surge. The other day I discovered the decomposing carcass of a large sea bird I did not recognize. I removed the skull […]
Tsuru Update: Sculpting the Basswood Crane
The crane, roughed-out in layers of basswood, almost ready for shaping I’ve been laminating layers of basswood to shape into a large crane sculpture, to be cast in bronze as the feature of our Tsuru Project in Denver. With a specific gravity of 0.32 and non-directional, knot-free grain, the wood is lightweight, stable, and carves […]
Tsuru Update
the great white egret flock in the marshes around Bodega Harbor as they migrate south The Dungeness crab season officially opened in Bodega Bay over the past weekend and the beaches have been teeming with life just after dawn- fishing boats on the bay, surfers on the south swell, pelicans skimming cresting waves, geese wedging […]
The Scale of Now
Stereo view of the sun by NASA, showing magnetic fields As I develop a new body of work in wood, I find myself seeking the simple pleasure of being present in the moment with my material and tools. It’s the ultimate luxury for any artisan to act as one’s own client, which is where I […]