artisan
It is a long journey from tree to fine
furniture. Cameron stalks lumberyards
for intriguing wood, but sometimes it
finds him, as when Markham Lumber in
Essex, Massachusetts, called to say it had
a log with his name on it. Cameron will
even rescue pieces from the wood stove in
the nearby home he shares with his wife,
graphic designer Ann Conneman. The
couple met when he was part of a cooperative on Congress Street in Boston and she
worked upstairs at Peter King + Co. When
the area became gentrified 10 years ago,
the couple moved to Gloucester, where he
found his current space in a building with
other craftspeople and artists.
In one corner of his workshop, 17
clamps hold a piece of laminate, thin layers
of wood fused together, making them stronger than a single piece of wood of the same
density. Using hand tools he learned to make
at Redwoods, Cameron will shape the laminate into a leg for one of his Crane Chairs,
named for its elegant avian lines and built to
respond to the body with a welcoming flex in
the back splat. In another corner is a cast-iron veneer press, which looks like a torture
device and is so large that Cameron must
climb on top to tighten the screws.
For all this vigorous treatment, the
results are as sleek as glass. “Smooth surfaces are about planing,” says Cameron.
“Much less sanding than you would think.”
He never uses stain or pore-clogging polyurethane on his furniture. Instead, he
enhances the natural beauty of wood with a
natural substance, shellac, a resin secreted
by the female lac bug. His sole nod to decoration is his use of the metal escutcheons
he designs and engraves himself, although
metal is also sometimes used for cabinet
legs. Starting with wood, he carves the legs,
then has them cast in bronze before grinding
Cameron stalks
lumberyards for intriguing
wood, but sometimes
it finds him, as when
Markham Lumber in
Essex, Massachusetts,
called to say it had a log
with his name on it.
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