The importance of the relationship that humans share with trees cannot be overstated. Simply put, we owe our survival as a species almost entirely to these plants, and from our most ancient past we have held trees in the highest esteem. Consider the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden, or the great ash Yggdrasil in Norse mythology that holds the nine realms together, or the sacred fig (Ficus religiosa) that Buddha sat under. Trees provide us with our primary shelter-building material, giving poles for tipis, timbers for barns, and even peeled veneers for plywood. Every culture has produced household goods primarily out of wood and, until the Industrial Revolution, it was our primary...
Photo courtesy David C. Now that we’re running the Mortise & Tenon Apprenticeship Program once per year, each term is a pretty big deal. This time, we have more students than ever before working their way through the eight-week program, and it has been a blast. Joshua and I are always blown away by the thoughtful observations, humility, and camaraderie that are showcased when our students get to work. Photo courtesy Michael G. The Apprenticeship Program is now in its 5th term, a milestone hard to imagine when it first launched a few years ago. We’d been seriously missing in-person classes but at the same time recognized the shortcomings of those kinds of singular events. In short, you save up...
In 1925, the troubled young American artist hit the road in search of a new start. Born Everard Jean Hinrichs, the son of German immigrants, he suffered a lengthy series of struggles and setbacks that led to his decision to head west and explore the country his family had adopted. Ostensibly borrowing the family’s neglected Model T, Hinrichs fashioned counterfeit license plates and left all he knew in New York City. Trained in painting and lettering, and inspired by the boundless vistas of the Hudson River School movement of romantic landscape art, he planned to work his way across America as a freelance sign painter while learning the moods and history of the land. Hinrichs’ ancestry and ability to letter...
