Sonoma County "Artistry in Wood" Show
Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA
>I took a break from the kitchen project today (specifically, from scraping wallpaper off redwood boards salvaged from the old laundry room to get the 7/8" thick boards I need to match existing trim on the house) to stop by the Sonoma County Woodworkers' Assocation "Artistry in Wood" show - the 19th annual, held for years now in the county museum in Santa Rosa. The show is still on through September 9, so I thought I'd post some comments for anyone who is/will be in Sonoma County and has 30-45 minutes to spare.
As always, I came away simultaneously inspired and completely intimidated. In general, the quality of the work there is just so stunning that I feel like I should put away all my tools, since I'll never get anywhere close to that good. At the same time, it reminds me that there's life beyond kitchen cabinets, and a level of work to which to aspire.
Random observations from this year's show:
1. Of the 11 tables, six are what I think of as "formal" design, all marquetry and veneer, high polish, no visible gaps or oopsies anywhere; not the sort of thing you would want to set your can of Bud on while watching American Idol, but rather something for the cup of tea on saucer, pinky finger in the air, no spilling please. Five in particular are the kind of outrageous marquetry that makes you wonder how anyone can cut that precisely. This may have been an influence from one of the judges, Debey Zito, whose work has a lot of lovely inlay, or may reflect what's happening among the kind of woodworkers who submit entries to the show.
2. Rant on: As always, I had the chance to be annoyed by someone's hardware decisions. There is one cabinet with doors made of bookmatched walnut slabs, with the meeting edges curved away from each other, leaving a gap that offers natural handles to open the doors, and smooth, dark oiled finish. I spent a couple of minutes just admiring the wood. Then I opened the doors - to find bulky European hinges, the type that look like they were adapted from the mechanisms used to close the canopies on fighter planes. The rest of the cabinet was mostly consistent with the doors, but those hinges just grated like mad, and in my opinion, ruin the cabinet. Perhaps the maker was solving some engineering problem with the doors warping or something, but it's a pity s/he (can't remember name) couldn't have used nice brass butt hinges or great big knife hinges. Even Soss hinges would have been an improvement.
Rant off.
3. My favorite piece was a sweet little pedestal table by David Marks. The pedestal is square in section, with four simple legs, and spirals up from legs to top. I don't recall ever before seeing flat spirals on square-sectioned stock, and it's a striking, subtle effect. Nicely finished mahogany, too. I'd buy it in a minute if I just had money...