Monday, May 3, 2010

Weird Things

When I go to Marfa, Texas, I make weird things.  I show up at my little adobe house, unload my tools, and dive into my lumber collection.  I have brought to Marfa old redwood panels from my wife's childhood home, doors, windows, plywood, 2x4s, etc. from California.  Now I have a nice little clutch of materials to choose from when I need to make a weird thing.  What is a weird thing?  A weird thing is a piece of furniture that addresses a specific need in the house, made of lumber I have on site, and built in under an hour using nothing more than a skilsaw and an electric drill/driver. (There may or may not have been a router, planer, or sander used on some of them, but mostly its the drill and saw).  It is all certifiable Chop 'N' Screw Domestic Solutions.  Weird Things:



 

 Extra weird thing.  So weird Danielle had to paint it white to tone it down a little.  That horse head is an unfinished half scale carousel animal.  I come from a long line of carousel builders; my great great grand uncle brought the first carousel to the USA (more here).   Sometimes I have to save things from the burn pile at my grandma's house, like wooden horse heads.  Weird.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

My First Sony

This is the first custom piece I did in Paris.  It is a wall mounted box closet for Imelda and Francesca, two wonderful people.  When I made this, I tested and proved to myself that in small apartments, big furniture feels significantly less imposing if you lift it off the ground.  I have since mounted a few more things to the walls of Parisian apartments (coming soon to this blog).  This room also houses a couple pieces by Nathaniel Russell.  Good company, all around.