Working Alone All Week
I was sitting in my studio last Tuesday, surrounded by three years’ worth of rejected chair prototypes—each one a physical record of a mistake I was glad I made—and realized…
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Costing a Piece on Paper First
I was standing in my workshop last Tuesday, staring at a walnut chair leg that had just cost me three days of labor and a very expensive piece of timber,…
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What Your Hands Learn Before You Do
I remember standing over a walnut slab three years ago, the scent of cedar shavings thick enough to taste, when my chisel suddenly skidded. I didn’t think; I didn’t consult…
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A Stringing Line Done Cleanly
I was staring at a slab of walnut last Tuesday, my chisel hovering just millimeters above a groove I’d spent three hours perfecting, when I realized I had almost made…
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Where to Spend and Where Not to
I have a shelf in my studio dedicated entirely to the “almosts”—the prototypes that died because a material was too precious or a joint was too complex for the client’s…
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Fitting a Cabinet Lock
I was standing in my workshop three years ago, staring at a hand-carved walnut door that I had spent six weeks perfecting, only to realize I had completely botched the…
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Everything About One Piece in One Place
I spent a decade watching junior designers obsess over “perfect” digital ecosystems—expensive cloud-based software suites that promised to automate their creativity into submission. They treat organization like a holy ritual,…
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Photographs Taken in the Workshop
I’ve spent most of my career watching people try to turn product photography into some sort of high-stakes cinematic event, complete with rented lighting rigs and studio assistants that cost…
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Furniture Children Will Not Break
I was staring at a pile of rejected walnut scraps in my studio last Tuesday, thinking about a chair I built for a client’s toddler five years ago. The industry…
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The Record That Improves the Next Quote
I’ve spent two decades watching people try to solve the problem of material accounting with expensive, over-engineered software that feels like it was designed by accountants for accountants, rather than…
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