Tracking Hours Even When It Hurts
I was staring at a pile of rejected chair joints in my workshop last Tuesday—each one a failed attempt at a connection that almost worked—when I realized my time logs…
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Leaving a Design for a Week
I have a shelf in the back of my studio dedicated to what I call the “ghosts”—a collection of warped plywood, botched joints, and expensive mistakes. Most design textbooks will…
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A Cardboard Mock Up Saves a Month
I was staring at a pile of scrap birch and a half-finished joinery prototype at 2:00 AM, wondering why the “perfect” digital render looked so much better than the physical…
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A Shake Found After Cutting
I was halfway through surfacing a walnut slab for a client’s dining table when the grain suddenly gave way to a hairline check that looked more like a canyon. My…
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Scraping for a Clearer Surface
I was staring at a walnut tabletop last Tuesday, surrounded by a fine, suffocating cloud of dust that seemed to coat every single surface in my studio, when I realized…
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Setting Out at Full Size
I remember standing in my studio ten years ago, staring at a sheet of plywood that felt far too large to be useful, paralyzed by the sheer scale of it.…
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A Change Request With the Frame Glued
I was staring at a half-finished walnut sideboard last Tuesday, the scent of sawdust thick in the air, when I realized the joinery I’d spent three days perfecting was fundamentally…
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Hand Drawings That a Maker Can Use
I have a drawer in my studio filled with graphite-smudged scraps that most people would call failures, but to me, they are the most honest parts of my career. There…
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Showing a Design Without Renderings
I have a shelf in my studio dedicated entirely to the “almosts”—the chair legs that were too aggressive, the joinery that failed the stress test, the finishes that looked like…
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Working Out Where the Hours Went
I remember standing in my studio back in ’08, surrounded by half-finished walnut carcasses and a stack of invoices that felt more like a death warrant than a business record.…
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