The weekend started with a Behind the Velvet Ropes tour of the Gamble House Friday morning, a tour of the Getty Museum in the afternoon, Details of Joinery tour of the Gamble House Saturday morning, the Huntington Library's grounds and Sam Maloof exhibit in the afternoon, a tour of Sam Maloof's home Sunday, and a private tour of Sam Maloof's shop Monday before returning home. You can see why it was called a whirlwind tour :)
By the way, this is why the final sculpted Mahogany vanity video is behind schedule :)
I was going to gather photos from people and post them here, but the others have been posting them with fantastic dialog and story on the forum where this idea was hatched. That said, go give the thread a read over on talkFestool. More photos and links will continue to dribble in over this week.
The photographers were pretty good. And pretty good at being stealthy. There might be some shots you won't see elsewhere over there. For example, this was my favorite piece of art at the Maloof house. The docent couldn't confirm it, but I've seen hand sculptures like this where they were done from molds made from the person himself. Looks better in person when you don't need to be sneaky:
Naturally, I like woodworking as a hobby, but an ice hockey tournament will easily get me out of the shop :)
Posts
I believe the Gamble House is where "Doc Brown" lived in Back to the Future movies.
Somebody mentioned that while on the tour, Rob... dunno if it is true, but a great excuse to watch that movie again. I think my friends and I watched the first movie a dozen times trying to find more and more time changes.
So I guess it is okay if you're shooting a movie to take photos :)
That had to have been awesome. Sams home and shop would have taken the cake for me, the rest is icing, worlds best icing.
Nateswoodworks
I went to see the Sam Maloof exhibition last Friday and was really inspired. It would have even been better had I bumped into the great Paul Marcel! :)
Definitely agree with you, Nate. Ah, too bad we didn't connect on the tour, Kristofer... that would have been great to have you for the house tour. There was only one other woodworker besides Chris Wong, John, and myself so having yet another would have been great! Next time I plan a trip like that, I may post the tentative itinerary and see if others want to join in. The Gamble House joinery tour, though, was loaded.
And, Nate... the best part of the shop tour was getting to talk to some of the boys. Because then a sculpture in the Maloof house made sense. For Kristofer, if you remember in the room behind the dining room but before the tower room. There was a table with a number of sculptures including some kinda goofy stick people made of sticks. To the right of that was a sculpture by Larry White (Sam's first employee) of 4 crows in bags like he always does. I want to chat with Larry (he was on vacation), but I think that sculpture is of the boys, as crows.
Wow, looks like you guys had one hell of a weekend. That is a great sculpture, bye the way.
This was a really interesting trip and all the more so since I live so close in Ventura County. I thought I had seen all the interesting places after living here for 8 years! Have you been to see the Watts Towers? Not wood but very unusual - and built with a similar motive to the strange Coral Castle of Leedskalnin.
Leedskalnin could lift 28 ton blocks of Coral and position them. I am stuck waiting on my wife to help me lift less than 300lbs of SawStop cabinet saw onto a mobile base!
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