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American Made G O O D L I V I NG
Sandback 2015 DESIGN WINNER
Peter Sandback
Nailed It
An innovative artisan turns the ordinary into the ornamental, crafting modern tables decorated with pointillistic patterns. TEXT BY MELISSA OZAWA
IN A CONVERTED GARAGE surrounded by 30 acres of lush New Hampshire forest, Peter Sandback spends his days transforming basic materials—wood, nails, glue—into works of intricate beauty. No stranger to the woodshop, he was first taught elementary skills by his dad, the minimalist sculptor Fred Sandback, when he was a kid. During graduate school at the Art Institute of Chicago, he got a job in the school’s shop “and sort of learned more on the fly,” he says. There he built elaborate frames for art, then three-dimensional objects. But after his degree, he struggled to make a living. Encouraged by his wife, he began to make furniture—Shaker-style tables out of repurposed wood, and then “stocky” concrete ones, developing a method of making the concrete hollow so they could be easily shipped. When the economy crashed in 2008, however, his business plummeted by about 75 percent within just a couple of months. “I suddenly found myself with a lot of free time and nervous energy,” he says. Instead of fretting about the lack of work, he started
On the Dot Clockwise from left: A baked-maple coffee table decorated with aluminum nails. A detail before the nails are cut down. For complex designs, Sandback can use thousands of nails. He works with local woods, such as walnut; soft maple baked to a rich, reddish brown; and ash, which he sometimes burns to create a darker hue.
RO B ERT M O S ES (P O RT R AIT ); B RYA N GA R D N ER (OT H ERS)
Harrisville, New Hampshire petersandback.com
