Jessica stacking logs with the forklift on a wintery February day
JeSSicA WicKhAM Furniture Maker Interview by Harryet Candee
Photographs by Meredith Heuer
Jessica, i came across your hand-crafted furniture pieces at Art en industrie, the new gallery in housatonic, MA. and could not take my eyes off the white ash trestle table with canti-levered benches - mainly because i have never seen such a perfectly smooth, natural wood surface such as this. The design of the piece, for me, all adds up to the simple conclusion that you may have intended this piece for some God and Goddess out there. it’s a magical piece that sings and boasts of how beautiful nature’s gifts can be. And…its all from a single tree from lancaster, PA. The description say it’s quartersawn with concealed double tenon joinery, can you explain this in layman’s terms? And why this particular kind of White Ash Sapwood was your choice for this piece? Jessica Wickham: This piece, like many that we make, was inspired by the character of the material used. in this case, quartersawn white ash sapwood – a very unusual cut of a rather ordinary log. We have our own sawmill and cut each log with future furniture in mind. i happen to love white ash, a tree that is under duress right now in the northeast and in decline as a species, following in the footsteps of other species such as Chestnut, and elm. To decode a little: “quartersawing” is a method of milling a log that yields very stable pieces – basically cutting parallel to the radius of the log. it is time-consuming and ends up wasting some of the log so it is not very economical. it is very unusual to see quartersawn wood – other than quartersawn oak, which is often used in flooring. Quartersawn white ash is not available commercially – so if you want it, you have to custom mill it. “Sapwood” is the region of the log that is closest to the bark – the outer growth rings on the tree. it is a fascinating material, usually contrasting in color to the rest of the tree (called the “heartwood”). as the tree grows, sapwood transforms into heartwood and become denser and more bug-resistant. as it happens, white ash sapwood is very bright white, with pronounced wide growth rings. i love the way it looks. So a few years back, when we came across some large white ash logs, we decided to quartersaw them to maximize the sapwood. 8 • november 2012 The arTFUL MinD
A set of three black walnut nesting stepstools, with exposed sliding dovetail joinery “Concealed double tenon joinery” refers to the joint that we used to achieve the cantilevered seat on the bench. if you notice, there is no front “leg” on the bench – all the weight on the seat is supported by the single, rear leg. There is a tremendous amount of stress placed on any chair when someone plops down to sit on it. To support this, without a front leg, we needed to use a very strong joint. “Mortise and tenon” joinery is common in furniture making – but making a “blind” double tenon is more difficult. it is a very precise, super-strong joint that is completely hidden from view! That joint will last a long, long time…
i was glancing at a book that the owner of the gallery Art en industrie had lent to me on The reflections of a Woodworker, George nakashima. What ways of working with wood do the two of you share? Jessica: George nakashima was an extraordinary man who has influenced just about every contemporary woodworker i can think of. his parents were Japanese immigrants to the US and his family was interned in a camp in idaho at the end of WW2. he trained as an architect at MiT and worked with antonin raymond, a Frank Lloyd Wright disciple, on sites all around the world, before returning to the US to dedicate his life to furniture making. he had a philosophical approach to his work that combined aesthetics with spirituality. he bridged Japanese traditional style and technique with modernist sensibilities. his workshop was prolific – his team produced thousands of pieces – and in fact it continues today in new hope, Pa, two decades after his death. i remember reading that book you refer to (i think the title is “The Soul of the Tree”) as a teenager. My father is an architect and brought that book home one day. it is such an elegant personal statement about his process and how he FinDS the design of a piece in the idiosyncracies of the tree itself, rather than imposing an idea onto a random piece of wood. he popularized the use of traditional Japanese design elements in this country - like the use of the sinuous natural edge of the tree and the little “butterfly” or “bowtie” keys used to stabilize cracked or knotty areas of a board. nakashima was famous in his early work for sal-
vaging the “scrap” wood that was discarded by sawmills because it had “defects” in it. he celebrated the unique elements in each piece of wood — knots, figure, cracking — and made it central to his designs. This approach – of finding beauty in the imperfect — is deeply rooted in the ancient and permeating aesthetic of the Japanese tea ceremony. i think one has to be very careful when comparing anyone’s style to that of George nakashima. he was a pioneer, a product of an incredible personal history and a moment in time and a visionary aesthetic. he changed the world of woodworking – we are all little acorns that fell off of his big oak tree… i have been very inspired by his work and his writings – lets just leave it at that! When did you start working with wood? What were your earliest pieces like? Jessica: i grew up in an architect’s household – my dad was a partner in a firm in nyC after having worked for i.M. Pei for years – we were always “making things”. i actually studied cultural anthropology in college and travelled the world trying to figure out what i wanted to do. i supported myself with a job in the corporate world for ten years – working in technology. i ended up in Tokyo, a place that changed me profoundly. Lived there for about 5 years, i was so moved and energized by the prevalence of super high quality handmade objects in everyday life that you find in Japan. To balance my work life, i started studying the use of traditional Japanese hand tools (chisels, handplanes etc, sharpened on waterstones). i’ll never forget my first project – it was a tool box for my chisels, using hand-cut joinery – it took me a whole year to complete! Working slowly, trying to understand the mysteries behind these amazing tools. i was so energized and inspired by these tools/techniques that i ultimately quit my job and dedicated myself to the study of fine craft. Then returned to the new york area, determined to find a way to integrate these skills and sensibilities into my own craft-based business. The early pieces coming out of my studio were really studies in the idiosyncracies of the local hardwood species. it is so interesting