Driftwood consultation sunday

Written By Robin Wade

I've avoided using driftwood as a medium in the past - for several reasons..  A friend and new client is requesting an outside (completely covered and protected) mantle - and asked about driftwood.  Her inside mantle that's in process among other pieces) is a huge 4" thick walnut slab.  I've been collaborating with a local, accomplished artisan known as "the  Drifter" over the past, and have brought him into this collaboration as well.  Unfortunately he wishes to remain anonymous, but here's what I can share.  He's displaying one of several options he's found so far.  He'd like for the driftwood to be sourced from the client's slough - but nothing yet.

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
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