Joe’s Mushroom Report

josef szuecs

artist/musician/chef Josef Szuecs of The-Way-To-Go-Joes

My friend and neighbor Josef Szuecs is one of the most multi-talented people I’ve ever met. Owner of Renga Arts in Occidental, CA, guitarist/founder of the locally popular, self-described ‘porch jazz’ combo, The-Way-To-Go-Joes, Joe is also an accomplished chef, and his food often features seasonal fare he hunts, grows, fishes and forages. Joe is always generous in sharing his knowledge, and recently introduced Ene and me to the craft of cider-making. As a Halloween treat, Joe has penned the primer that follows on foraging and cooking wild mushrooms, an autumnal delight in our region that is often shrouded in mystery:

porciniJoe’s morning harvest of foraged porcini mushrooms Continue reading “Joe’s Mushroom Report”

Focus on Beginnings

spiral stool

Like a lot of makers, a significant portion of my time involves working in solitude, or at least in focused isolation on the task at hand. My best work results when I enjoy this part, but I’ve learned how to trick my way into the appropriate attitude to just get the job done if need be (see ‘Craftitude’). One of the reasons I enjoy making studios visits and interviews with fellow makers is to learn about their mental strategies- what constitutes the ‘work behind the work’, so to speak; what is the relationship between their inner dialogue and its outward expression in object form? As I prepare for a sequence of demanding projects in the woodshop, I’m thankful to be reminded by my recent studio visit with Angelina DeAntonis how important it is to keep the focus on beginnings.

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In the Studio with Angelina DeAntonis

angelina de antonis

artist/textile designer Angelina DeAntonis sits in the chair her mother made, surrounded by Angelina’s ottomans

I did not expect to be distracted by a chair as I entered the San Francisco studio of artist/textile designer Angelina DeAntonis, but the chair’s clean lines and straightforward presence captured my imagination, and it looked very much at home surrounded by Angelina’s luminous fabric creations. I quickly learned that the chair, like everything else in Angelina’s working space, has a unique story that is integral to her aesthetic worldview. The chair is one of a pair built by Angelina’s mother over 40 years ago, with cushions upholstered in fabric her mom wove from sheep raised and sheered on the family farm in the Pacific Northwest, where Angelina was raised.

DeAntonis most definitely gleaned an early appreciation of hand-crafted textiles from her mother, but she also inherited a fearless capacity for experimentation. Informed by the back-to-the-land ethos of her upbringing, Angelina’s clothes effortlessly link sustainability with beauty, elegance with comfort. While Angelina is well known as a designer of naturally dyed, sumptuously graphic and eminently wearable clothing, which she sells under her Ocelot Clothing label, her development as a textile artist and her sensibility as a designer are more complex.

dyed fabric detail Continue reading “In the Studio with Angelina DeAntonis”

Bull Kelp of the South Swell

surf at doran

The seasonal south swell has returned to Doran Beach, piling up shapely waves along with lashings of Bull Kelp. Last year I was intent upon taming the kelp for a wild-crafted, bioregional chair. My dream remains intact but this year I’m more seduced by the waves.

kelp at doran

enormous tangles of kelp accumulate along the shore after a storm

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The Week in Bloom

Sanderlings (Calidris alba) along Doran Beach
Sanderling (Calidris alba) along Doran Beach

Now the sanderling outnumber the dowitcher along the Sonoma Coast, where heaps of kelp remind of the season’s first storms. Last week’s extratropical activity dumped up to ten inches of rain from Typhoon Melor, which blew across the Pacific from Japan. The uncharacteristically humid, warm weather forced some unlikely blossoming, turned the local pastures green, and officially ended our fire season.

wild ginger in bloom on the edge of our redwood grove
wild ginger in bloom on the edge of our redwood grove
the wind blown seed of the coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens)
the wind blown seed of the coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens)

To follow my thread of phenological observations, please click here.


Back to the Studio

offcuts

a satisfying pile of offcuts accumulate as I make chairs for Becoming Independent

Getting back to the studio this week makes me grateful that my work as an artisan requires such a range of activity. After a couple of weeks of project-related proposal-making, site visits, speaking engagements and interviews with the press, I’m delighted to shift the focus back to making furniture and letting my hands do the thinking for a while. While the work of an artisan may not always yield economic rewards in proportion to cumulative effort, the sheer range of activity of a professional maker strikes an enviable balance. Just when I’ve had enough of the public interaction required to promote and manage projects, I’m happy to retreat to the studio for more visceral engagement; then a few weeks of isolated concentration readies me for a another round of sociability.

The cycle follows older patterns than most other ‘work’, more like the harvesting and marketing implicit in agriculture or fishing, but the model seems transferable to the contemporary workplace. I think most people would benefit from predictable cycles of creative isolation followed by dynamic social interaction, not to mention the quality of the work at hand.


Bioneers

bioneers

Bioneers was held over the past weekend at the Wright-designed Marin Civic Center

Bioneers is an annual, three day forum for cutting edge ideas in the realm of sustainability and ecology. This year’s conference was aptly sited on the campus of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Marin Civic Center and marks the twentieth anniversary of the inception of Bioneers. The urgency for action related to climate change dominated the theme, with a deep range of participants and speakers including Michael Pollan, and organizations like the Indigenous Environmental Network, whose timely Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) is gaining well-deserved recognition. Ene and I were honored to be among the presenters this year. ?????? We introduced a project in development and used the forum as an opportunity to get feedback and brainstorm how best to proceed. ???? ????? The project will combine social media and handheld technology to increase bioregional awareness, and I will be excited to make it available on these pages as soon as it is up and running. ???? ???? ??? ???? ???? ??? I would love to hear from anyone with expertise in designing handheld applications with interest in helping me build a prototype. ??? ??????? ??????? ??? ???

heron2

A Great Blue Heron in the wetlands of the Marin Civic Center campus

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