Last week marked the official end of the WARP crew’s van rental (WARP tour?) and, thus, the official transition from inspiration to perspiration, driving to riving. But first, recap of our most recent adventures.
Lumber Yard
The crew loaded up the van for a visit to Delaware County Supply. This was our second official lumber run, the first being our trip to Manayunk Timber last week. Delaware County Supply is a traditional lumber yard with a wide selection (we picked up some beech, basswood, white oak, fir, cherry, and wire brushed pine) while Manayunk specializes in reclaimed wood and has a wide selection of that. Manayunk also has a bit more of a Philadelphia indie vibe, sharing a space with a bookstore, bakery, and arts space. It’s the only lumber yard any of us has ever seen with a DJ station. Both great lumber yards in their own unique ways!
On Tuesday, we crew rendezedvoused with this museum staff at the home and studio of furniture titan George Nakashima near the historic art community of New Hope, PA. Our tour guide was Toshi Amagasu, who happens to be Nakashima’s great grandson. His family’s business is very much alive in its fourth generation, and in addition to seeing original the original architecture and furniture Nakashima built on the property, we got the chance to peep into the wood shop to see craftspeople continuing to produce the classic designs. Toshi did a great job retelling the outsized life of his grandfather, with a few self-deprecating wisecracks about his family along the way.
We were lucky enough to see the Wharton Esherick Museum on the same rainy afternoon as the Nakashima studio, and the two paired exceptionally well together. Both are DIY dwellings built by visionary woodworkers, and each site fuses craft and life in its own way. After the clean lines and simplicity of Nakashima’s structures, the Esherick’s flowing organic forms felt like a whimsical and slightly decadent desert. Our guide, Holly Gore, who wrote a PhD on Esherick, was able to point out surprises around every corner. It’s a place so unique that it takes someone to point out that the handrail one is holding onto is actually a mastodon tusk.
Mark Sfirri Studio
On Wednesday, we met the legendary woodturner and longtime Bucks County Community College woodworking professor Mark Sfirri at his home and studio. Mark is incredibly generous and gave a ton of helpful advice: everything from his favorite brand of files (something French I scribbled in a notebook) to the best way to store woodturning blanks. Inevitably, it would seem, he fired up the lathe for a semi-spontaneous woodturning demo on the flower forms he’s currently making. Afterward, he followed us into New Hope for a meal at the food coop, and a cup of coffee at the local coffee shop. Great fun!
After spending so much time in Bucks County, it seemed appropriate to finish with a stop the Michener Museum, a beautiful art museum dedicated to highlighting arts from Bucks County. Chief Curator, Laura Igoe led our tour. After seeing a lot of wood art in a short amount of time, it was fun to take in the full range of the museum, which included photography, ceramics, a large impressionist painting collection, and some wonderful sculptures and functional objects. We loved the red, arched Powell Door, brilliantly mirrored by a monumental arched painting by Daniel Garber. Despite them having little to do with wood, we also loved these whimsical sketches by B.J.O. Norfeldt.
That’s all for now! More next week!