Writing the Glue Up Order Down
I was standing in the middle of my shop three years ago, staring at a pile of expensive walnut scraps and a spreading pool of PVA glue that had escaped…
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The Edge Is Where Hands Go
I was staring at a pile of walnut offcuts in my studio last Tuesday, thinking about the sheer amount of time we waste overcomplicating the simplest things. There is this…
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The Dry Fit Before Any Glue
I was standing in the middle of my studio last Tuesday, staring at a pile of walnut components that looked, on paper, absolutely perfect, yet felt fundamentally wrong. It’s that…
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Whether an Exhibition Pays
I was standing in a pristine, white-walled gallery last spring, staring at a series of perfectly polished chairs, and I felt absolutely nothing. The lighting was expensive, the curation was…
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Rehearsing a Glue Up Dry
I still remember the smell of Titebond II and the cold sweat that comes when you realize your clamps are all positioned in the wrong direction. I was working on…
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The Real Cost of Replacing It Twice
I was clearing out a corner of my studio last Tuesday when I tripped over a discarded prototype of a side table from 2008—a spindly thing made of particle board…
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Where Commissions Actually Come From
I remember sitting in my studio back in ’04, surrounded by three different rejected versions of a walnut chair leg, staring at a stack of business cards that felt more…
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Designing to Be Mended
I was clearing out a corner of my studio last Tuesday when I tripped over a prototype chair from 2008—a heavy, oak-veneer mess that I’d rejected because the joints were…
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Cauls for Even Pressure
I was staring at a slab of walnut that had spent three weeks drying, only to watch it cup into a grotesque, unusable arc the moment I let the clamps…
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Showing a Joint on Purpose
I was staring at a half-finished walnut sideboard three years ago, the scent of sawdust and linseed oil heavy in the studio, when I realized I was paralyzed. I had…
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