American Woodman

OK, I've been thinking about this issue for a long time, particularly since I went to a lecture at Bard College almost 10 years ago, given by Julia Butterfly Hill, the famous (some would say infamous) redwood tree-sitter. At the time I was not only using redwood, in spite of its toxicity, but I was using exotic hardwoods from Africa, South America, and Australia, some of which probably came from rain forests that would be better preserved, than cut down for pasture or woodworkers.
I could number out a list of all the top-ten drop-dead gorgeous bowls I have made from ill-gotten wood.... purpleheart, cocobolo, padauk, red mallee, coolibah, zebrawood, just getting started.... and lots of redwood... Was I truly evil? Look- it was easy to justify... doesn't art come first? Isn't using discarded sections of wood (as the wood I crave was exactly the wood that board-makers didn't want, the more complex, impossible-to-work, pieces) somehow a noble use of wood that, heck, the tree had already been cut down, right? Wasn't I preserving for all time the very special spirit of each complex section of an individual tree, its very soul, if you will? Shouldn't my work be applauded? Wasn't my higher use more justified than the lower uses- boards, for example?
Well, I kept on deceiving myself for a good long time and my work was praised by almost all who saw it, with little thought of where it came from and whether the "maker" was being ethical, or not. Gee, there I was on the Martha Stewart Show, with Padauk and zebrawood, and cocobolo, all no doubt somewhat questionable endangered species in a sense, and on the same Show was a fellow espousing preservation and displaying various animals and amphibians who were currently threatened?
He must have hated me.
I began to loath myself. The hypocrisy of it all !! What a crock !! YesYesYes, it's beautiful, it's gorgeous, it's wonderful, it's unique, it's indescribable, it's..... sometimes perfect.
But, it's evil to use exotic foreign woods. Sorry, you friends who supported my work and obtained my work, or sold me blocks of (name a great foreign hardwood- I bought it...).
So I couldn't do it any more. It's not that I suddenly made a decision to become "pure".... I also got tired of getting blocks of great wood that I paid good money for, and then have them check or split and become unusable because they had been badly seasoned or not seasoned at all. And heavy waxing really didn't crack it for me. Hey, isn't there an abundance of fabulous North American hardwoods? Didn't I start OUT with cherrycherrycherry and more cherry, and isn't cherrywood as gorgeous as any other wood in the world? Sure it is.
So is deeply-rayed and complex Western bigleaf maple.
But I admit to being a hypocrite and easy-outter... What really happened is my younger brother shipped me around 42 blocks of bigleaf maple... and at the same time, I had already tried most of the foreign woods, so my curiosity had been largely satisfied. It was easy to quit, and cold turkey, too.
That still leaves the redwood issue. I love Julia Butterfly Hill, even though I only heard her once.
How could anyone not admire to the Nth degree, someone who had devoted so much energy and time to a cause greater than herself? Why did I betray her? Would I continue to betray her in the name of my own art and self-interest? Would I draw a line in the deep soil surrounding the redwood forests and declare "I shall not use redwood..."? Even though redwood is really really toxic (to your lungs, your skin... there is no coincidence that it repells water, and insects, perhaps even fire...) I loved working with redwood.
This past year I bought a redwood burl section, part of which had been in a fire, from a dealer in Oregon. It is one of the most beautiful bowls I have ever made. Definitely a top-ten.
I am a despicable person. But I haven't gotten any more redwood blocks after that one. I did get some locust burl blocks from the same dealer, and they were spectacular, and they were real.
So, I had a brief redwood relapse. But I am pretty well determined to stick to more common North American woods from now on... maple, elm, cherry, heck.... the list is long enough to keep any woodworker gouging and sanding for a lifetime.
There is something basically wrong about shipping wood from other continents when wood from your own continent will do just as well. Not only wrong, but in this day and age (you know, global warming, carbon exchanges, green....) perhaps even evil. I am striving to do less wrong.

The Martha Show in July

It has been summer hot here in the Hudson Valley and yesterday I was doing some woodwork, sanding a nice small piece of western bigleaf maple, and took a break for awhile. I tuned in to the Martha Show, which comes on at 1 p.m. here, and there I was, on TV, sanding that S. American mahogany bowl that I made for the Martha segment. Imagine my surprise ! Especially as I had actually only seen the segment twice. Was it a dream? No, a re-run !
Then a phone call from Karen in Oak Park, Ill., came in, and then the emails started popping, and my quiet, sultry, too-hot-to-sand anyway July day and evening turned busy. And I had to help a friend paint some interior rooms of a house nearby, even in the heat.
I am trying this time to answer emails promptly. Last time, in January, when that Show originally aired, I wasn't handy with a new email system, and I didn't even NOTICE about 50 emails until a week or 2 had already passed. I felt badly about that... I think I should be prompt in replying to folks who took the time to contact me, for whatever reason. If Martha was generous and gracious enough to have this average guy (me) on the Show, even if I do make unaverage bowls, I think I should make every effort to respond in kind to her viewers. Don't you? And, I really do appreciate the nice things most folks have to say about my work.
Being on the Martha Show was a high point in my life, no doubt. Everyone, before, during, and after, was very nice, and totally professional, and I enjoyed the time with them. I wish I could have had a bit more time just chatting with Martha, we have some common interests, but during a morning of shooting a live TV show, she obviously doesn't have a lot of time for idle chitchat. One of her original producers, Leslie McNeil, is a neighbor of mine here in Rhinebeck, and I never had a chance to mention it.
So thanks, Martha !! It was great to be on the re-run !! And thanks to everyone who saw it for the first time and got in touch with me. I am working on a whole series of very cool Western bigleaf maple bowls, from dozens of blocks that my woodworking brother, Sebastian Eggert, of Port Townsend, Washington, sent me a few months ago, and I am trying to make them reasonably priced and affordable to average folks like me, even in a tough economy.

The Martha Stewart Show !

Well, I was ON the Martha Stewart Show yesterday, Jan. 17th. The segment they shot up here on Nov 2nd, of me making a mahogany bowl, using all the tools, and talking about some finished pieces, was just fabulous. (Thanks Laurie, and Gary!!!) And on the live set, Martha had examples of all the tools, a rough zebrawood block, and 6 finished bowls, each a different wood. After they showed the taped segment, we were "live", Martha showing each bowl on the set table, and I was sitting right nearby, and we were chatting about each piece, quite naturally. It was very cool, and turned out great! I was thrilled to meet Martha just briefly before and after the segment, and she is very attractive, gracious, and poised.
Being on TV is a new experience for me, all the bustling around, getting make-up. They dont have any room for errors- it is done live and what you see and hear is what you get.
On-set were 6 bowls= cocobolo, s. american mahogany (the same one I had done for the upstate shoot), African padauk, African zebrawood, red elm, and western bigleaf maple. The bowls looked great on the mostly white marble table.
Everyone on the Martha team was very friendly and complimentary and made you feel at ease even though there is an electricity of anticipation and pressure of putting on a live TV show each day, with a continuing change of people coming on the show (like me), who are unknown and untested entities, ofcourse. I am pretty sure that Vaia, the smart and attractive young woman who was my guide, was probably holding her breath when it came time for me to reply to the question Martha was going to ask me after the taped segment.... I sure didn't want to screw it up, not on national TV !! And naturally I wanted to do a good job for Martha.
It went fine. I was lucky.
The bowls, and my work, speak pretty well for themselves just by being there. It's always been about my work, for me, not about ME. But once invited, boy, you better show up, and hopefully do a good job. Friends tell me I aced it. I felt fine about it, and very relieved when it was over. So, what's next?
Thank you, Martha!! And thanks to Vaia, and Elie, and Joey, and everyone at the Show. It was a wonderful experience and all of you are just GREAT !!! kip