Most of you guys reading this are friends or friends of friends…maybe a few wandered in from the Sandinista website, all good. As you probably know, I’m moving my practice more in the direction of product design, with an emphasis right now on developing ideas for furniture and wood products. I recently found myself in a pretty cool loop of wood and furniture making lore and history…it starts with an icon in the world of wood craftsmanship, James Krenov. I discovered his books and started researching and found out that he was the inspiration behind the Inner Passage School of Woodworking. Here is an example of student work at the recent exhibition at Kozai in Vancouver:
Beautiful stuff! I also went to the Hand Made Instrument Show in Portland, OR and met Myles, the owner of Gilmer Wood. He was selling tonewoods to the luthiers and he invited me to his shop to buy some choice lumber and he wanted to show me his James Krenov hand planes. I later find out that he supplies alot of wood to the students at Inner Passage. Here is one of THREE warehouses full of the rarest exotic hardwoods in North America.
It was my first instrument show, and I felt it was like a combination of Record Fair and Trade Show, the work was pretty darned impressive, that is if you enjoy geeking out on this stuff:
Beautiful pair of archtop guitars:
Rows and rows of precision woodcraft:
Very custom bridge setup.
I think it’s safe to say, if you know where to look, craft is alive and well in America and Canada.
Please support it!
