three stumps arrived this morning

Apr 2

I've only worked with a few stumps so far, and I can tell you, there's nothing easy or fast about making furniture from a stump. The blades dull quickly, and that is If we get all the dirt and rocks out of the crevices. These three stumps completely filled up this big dump truck. Hopefully my 6000 pound fork lift will be able to move them around before we remove the dirt. The wood in a root seems to be hard and difficult to work. But, this morning it's feeling like Christmas. I can't wait to get into them. The grain patterns in these roots are usually, well, almost mesmerizing. To be the first (well second) to see a wonderous grain pattern is humbling.

Robin Wade

Robin Wade Furniture is a celebration of nature—a melding of a forward thinking commitment to the environment and a quiet, harmonious design aesthetic. From his "slow studio" in North Alabama, award-winning wood artist Robin Wade designs and crafts one-of-a-kind handmade furniture. Years before a piece is ready to enter a client's home or a gallery, the process begins—naturally—with the tree. Sustainably harvested, each specimen of hardwood is flitch sawn into natural-edge wood slabs, debarked by hand with a draw knife, and stacked to dry, usually for years, before the final cure in the kiln. From here, Wade and his team use both hand and power tools to bring Wade's vision to life, and then finish each piece with a hand-rubbed oil blend. Each organic furniture creation by Robin Wade Furniture balances the raw, natural beauty of environmentally, locally sourced hardwoods with minimally invasive, clean lines—a juxtaposition Wade calls both rustic and modern. “I haven’t yet found a better artist than nature,” he says.

robinwadefurniture.com

three stumps arrived this morning

studio / gallery / office / photo room drawing

here's the empty bowl I came home with