The Soul of a Tree: A Woodworker's ReflectionsOn a farmlike compound near New Hope, Pennsylvania, the author, his family, and fellow wood-workers create exquisite furniture from richly grained, rare timber. This book is an intimate look at his artistry, his philosophy, his life. The author's search for the meaning of life took him as a young man to Paris, Tokyo, and Pondicherry, India. In India, he found the inner peace for which he had been searching and began to find ways to work with timber. He writes about the grandeur of ancient trees and stunning figured woods and explains how he selects and prepares his materials. Above all, he impresses us with his devotion to discovering the inherent beauty of wood so that noble trees might have a second life as furniture. |
Contents
Acknowledgments | xiii |
Foreword by George Wald Introduction | xxi |
The Making of a Woodworker | 41 |
Copyright | |
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American walnut Antonin Raymond architecture asa-no-ha ashram bark beauty become boards book-matched boule branches bristlecone pine building built butterfly cabinet called cambium cambium layer cedar cells chisel Conoid Conoid chair Conoid Studio construction craft Craftsmanship creative cypress Emperor Meiji English walnut feet in diameter figuring finish French furniture George Nakashima Golconda grain grow growth hand hand plane hardwoods heartwood Hope workshop hundred inches India Japan joinery joint living lumber Minguren Museum Mira Mother Mountain Villa nature object Paris perfect perhaps Persian walnut phloem piece plane planks Pondicherry produce rain forest rings roof roots rosewood Sanskrit sapwood sawn shape sharpening side sketch skills slab solid wood sometimes species spindles spirit Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo Ashram stone sugi surface tatami thick thin timber timberline Tokyo tree tree's trunk usually veneer wood member woodworker Yaku sugi