Making a Curve Look Right
I was staring at the side profile of a walnut chair leg last Tuesday, my eyes blurring under the shop lights, feeling that familiar, hollow sense of failure. The line…
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Giving a Heavy Top a Convincing Base
I spent three hours yesterday staring at a pile of rejected walnut scraps in the corner of my studio, thinking about a dining table I built back in ’08. Most…
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A Taper That Makes a Leg Look Lighter
I have a shelf in my studio dedicated entirely to failures—stubs, tapered limbs, and awkward geometric experiments that never made it to a client’s floor. Most design textbooks will try…
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Drawer Gaps and Visual Rhythm
I spent three hours yesterday staring at a scrap of walnut, wondering why the bevel I’d spent weeks perfecting suddenly looked like an afterthought. Most people think that learning how…
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The Half Day a Week of Paperwork
I was sitting on my workshop floor last Tuesday, surrounded by the scent of freshly cut walnut and the mounting pile of unpaid invoices, wondering when exactly the “business” part…
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Finding the Marks You Missed
I remember sitting on the floor of my first studio, surrounded by the scent of sawdust and the heavy, metallic tang of a failed prototype. I was staring at a…
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Raking Light Across a Surface
I was staring at a walnut tabletop last Tuesday, the kind of piece that should have been the centerpiece of a commission, but instead, it looked like a crime scene.…
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A Commission for Someone You Never Meet
I still remember the smell of sawdust and stale coffee in my studio back in 2008, staring at a set of blueprints for a dining table that was destined for…
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Selling Without a Middleman
I remember sitting in my studio five years ago, surrounded by the scent of sawdust and the heavy, metallic tang of a broken CNC bit, staring at a stack of…
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The Marks Use Leaves
I spent most of yesterday digging through a cardboard box in the corner of my studio, pulling out a stack of rejected chair prototypes. One particular mahogany stool, which I’d…
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