Sharpening Before Starting
I spent most of my thirties believing that a successful morning required a curated ritual involving green juice, a high-end yoga mat, and a specific sequence of mindfulness exercises that…
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Stopping Before the Mistake
I was staring at a prototype of a walnut lounge chair last Tuesday, the kind of piece that should have been finished by noon, but instead, I was obsessing over…
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Thinking Twenty Years Ahead
I was staring at a pile of rejected walnut chair legs last Tuesday—each one tagged with a handwritten note explaining why the grain failed or the joinery felt cheap—when it…
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Not Working Twelve Hour Days
I was staring at a pile of walnut offcuts last Tuesday, wondering why I even bother with the slow way of doing things. Most people will tell you that pacing…
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Staying a One Person Workshop
I was staring at a pile of rejected chair legs in the corner of my studio last Tuesday—each one a physical record of a choice I didn’t make—when I realized…
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The Bench Records the Work
I have a shelf in the back of my studio, tucked behind a stack of letterpress proofs, filled with what most people would call trash. It’s a graveyard of off-cuts,…
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Telling a Client the Brief Is Wrong
I remember sitting in a cramped studio in East London, staring at a stack of sketches for a chair that was mathematically destined to collapse. The client had sent over…
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The Habits That Protect My Lungs
I remember standing in my studio three years ago, coughing so hard my ribs ached, staring at a pile of walnut shavings that looked deceptively soft. I had just spent…
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Choosing Hand Tools for One Operation
I was standing over a walnut sideboard last Tuesday, the smell of sawdust and linseed oil thick in the air, staring at a joint that looked technically perfect but felt…
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Starting a Part Again
I was staring at a walnut chair leg last Tuesday, the kind of piece that should have been a triumph, but instead felt like a lie. There is this pervasive,…
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