One of the things I love about Steve is his creative drive and vision. I also love that he just does things, though sometimes the scope of them scares me. I tend to fret and get overwhelmed easily by big projects. I have to remind myself to go “bird by bird,” as Anne Lamott advised. I have to take the small snapshot and move on from there.
Once the landscapinge season is over, Steve can turn to winter projects. This winter he’s transformed one of the old hog barns into a furniture-making shop. Impossibly quickly it has come together and he’s started transforming some of his early-morning sketches into wood and canvas and metal and, soon, leather.
When I leave for work in the morning, there’s a soft light coming through the garage door he had installed to bring light into the workshop.
In the evening, the soft light is still there, and smoke from the woodstove. The space is white and bright. He comes home smelling slightly of wood smoke but mostly of sawdust.
Some days he’s out there getting his “ass kicked” by the wood and joinery. But every day he is convinced that the chair is “a game changer” and something completely new.
In the way of rural winters on the farm, my sister-in-law Annie, whose house faces the studio, said she enjoys the company of that soft light during the day. Nice to know someone is out there creating something. At dinner time when it’s dark and the light goes out, she said she feels the satisfaction and slight deflation of another day done.
The prototype of the new sling chair came inside yesterday for testing in our living room. Last week at the Red Wing Shoe Company retail store in Red Wing, Minn., we found a lovely large piece of leather that will go on the next edition. First it has to pass the comfort and craft test.
Looking over my own winter, the writing has started going better, and I’ve had some real success with the short pieces. I’ve been posting more to cowbird.com, which you can view here or always on the poetry page of this site. I’m particularly happy with the recent story Tough Girls. It’s a story I’ve written before, but which works in this short form. The short, short stories are like my chairs– craft and inspiration I chisel out and join and hope, in the end, they’re comfortable.
furniture studio and chicken sun porch