Welcome to Medullary Ray

Zoom!      Pow!      Sha-zam! I’m catching my breath, bent over holding an aching back and looking at all that sawdust I now have to clean up. Whew, I’m beat! This is ‘me at work’. I sure do make a lot of messes and often I turn and look hoping that I will be able to see some manifestation of all of my calculations, problem solving, testing, gluing and sanding. Nope, I still want more to look at. Seems these days that I set out a task to do and quickly discover that I have to do ten things in order to accomplish my goal. This is why I feel like I'm taking ten steps back for one forward! I can't help but wonder if this happens in your line of work too. How do you get through it?!  Please tell me, I want to know! I often hear from people that my line of work must feel so good because you can actually see a product at the end of the journey. This is true and it does feel good if you like wh...

I'm so excited to be back in the shop again! I'm crafting a dining room table (sketch right) with a big nod to Piet Mondrian . This table is made mostly from previously used lumber . . . the top is made from 4 x 4 floor beams that I took out of my house and the legs are made from glu-lam beams that were removed from a clients home. The slab is 2" thick, 86" long and 41-1/4" wide. This beauty will seat 8. The clean straight lines of the slab are such a contrast to the vintage lumber I began working with. Originally I was going to make a workbench top out of the floor beams and then I started milling them up and saw the grain was so beautiful and tight I decided to go a bit more formal with it. When its finished it will have a warm and inviting, comfortable yet stylish look and feel to set the stage for the right dining room! Check back for more updates soon! At the other end of the shop I'm making a very sexy jewelry box made from a discarded pi...

9/27/11 My client, Jeffrey, and I imagined, designed and built the first point of purchase (pop) product display unit for tünr last summer. Tünr was the imagination of my brother Jeffrey coming to life as he dreamed, planned, proposed, organized and made crucial decisions. He had this idea; “Fine Tune Your Feet” . This is what he called tünr the sock and lace company that is now launched on the Internet and in street boutiques across the country. He approached me about designing and building tünr’s product display units. He thought of his product as the ‘tie and cufflinks’ of the sneaker world. He wanted wood. He wanted inlay, but could he afford it? He thought the tünr dresser would set off his product and set the tone for the concept he wanted to sell. We loved it, we thought the boutiques would love it but when he hit the streets with the idea of it the stores were afraid it would be too big. It’s 18” deep, 38 -1/2” wide and 31”/41” tall at the back. So I finis...

This is an updated photo of Portland where I live now. I work close by the river, the same Willamette river I wrote about: On my walk this morning I paused to admire the Willamette River. It is wide, and this morning, quiet, peaceful and full. As always it was flowing past me, underneath my footbridge.  The body split apart and came back together again with grace and ease.  After admiring it’s awesome beauty I was reminded of my work and the feeling of running in place. On the surface the river looks so peaceful so laid back like nothing is really going on. It’s so full that rapids aren’t even showing where they usually highlight the rocky substrate.  This river has a powerful underbelly. The current that lies beneath is hard at work making smooth the rocks that nest on its great gut. It seems so much like my own work. I work and work and sometimes it doesn’t look like anything is being done. But I know what is going on, even if underneath.  I am th...

Yesterday as I was painting I came to a wall where I had installed two beautiful coat racks. I made them out of scraps of Jatoba and Wengé . They are so rich in color and more beautiful and well made than anything in that room. I couldn’t just paint the wall off white. I consulted with our in house artist, Megan, and we chose a rich color to accent the racks.  When you surround yourself with beautiful woods skillfully designed and built cabinets, furniture and more, you will naturally want to extend their vibrancy into other aspects of your home. I think this is further evidence that our surroundings have a profound effect on our spirit , which in turn supports our ability to live and work creatively. Hire me to build your next project!

What is successful Design in furniture? Successful design is functional and visually pleasing. The challenge is to arrive at a design that meets both of these qualities equally. I believe woodworking is very much like the martial arts.  It is discipline and focus and being in tune with your senses, your feelings and the material that you are working with. Sometimes we just know we should wait to make that cut or start that glue-up and other times we know that everything is in alignment and there is no time to waste. It is a very personal process. Design is much the same. We struggle with the radius of an arc, the heaviness of a line, the proportions of a cabinet all related to the wood we are using and perhaps the final placement of the piece. Design is exciting! It can be a lot of fun to design your next desk or chair or armoire. Even more exciting to choose the wood. What woodworker doesn't like to go look at your local hardwood supplier and see what they mi...

                                                                                                 What's a Product POP ? We built the black metal tünr Tower  for  UBIQ  but it wasn't showing the public clearly enough that this is new product . The Tower is like a shoe tree, it displays a shoe out on the floor, away from a wall. In this case we were displaying six shoes fully dressed with the new sock and lace. This store wanted the Tower because they were concerned about shrinkage  (product theft). It wasn't working to sell the tünr products! So UBIQ decided to have the product out on the floor and this display is the result. It is basically the same pop display that is in DTLR , PHLI , Atmos , and  Concepts . I chose...