Skill Is Mostly Judgement
I spent most of yesterday afternoon digging through a cardboard box in the corner of my studio, pulling out a series of failed chair joints that I’ve kept for nearly…
Read more
The Eleven Stages of a Commission
I have a shelf in the corner of my studio dedicated to the “almosts”—the joinery that was too ambitious, the wood species that turned out to be a mistake, and…
Read more
Mortice and Tenon by Hand
I was staring at a pile of expensive walnut scraps in my studio last Tuesday, wondering why the joint I’d just spent forty minutes perfecting felt so uncomfortably tight. Most…
Read more
Seat Angle and Why Chairs Fail
I spent three weeks in 2004 obsessing over the lumbar sweep of a walnut lounge chair, only to realize I had built a beautiful, expensive torture device. I still have…
Read more
Designing a Chair Around a Person
I was staring at a prototype of a lounge chair last Tuesday—one of the many “failures” currently occupying a corner of my studio—realizing that the industry’s obsession with ergonomic data…
Read more
Pricing Work Without Underpaying Yourself
I was standing in my studio last Tuesday, staring at a prototype chair that had cost me three weeks of sleep and a significant amount of walnut, trying to figure…
Read more
Proportion Is Decided by Eye, Then Checked
I was staring at a prototype for a walnut sideboard last Tuesday, surrounded by the usual graveyard of failed ideas, when it hit me again. We spend so much time…
Read more
From Sketch to Full Size Mock Up
I spent most of yesterday morning digging through a cardboard box in the corner of my studio, pulling out a series of bent plywood joints that look more like modern…
Read more
A Dovetail That Needs No Filler
I was staring at a pile of walnut offcuts in my studio last Tuesday, thinking about the drawer front I’d nearly ruined three years ago. I had spent hours obsessing…
Read more
What We Notice in Something Made by Hand
I was clearing out a corner of the studio last Tuesday when I tripped over the “almost” chair—a walnut stool from 2008 with a leg cut just three degrees too…
Read more