My good friend Seth is a woodworker, and I like to spend time in his workshop learning new things. He has a methodical approach woodworkers tend to have. I think he was a bit stressed by my distinctly more vibes-based workflow when I designed the DC-1A desk console over the summer of 2024.
Something I’ve come to understand about working with physical materials is that the artisan who takes her time is rewarded in a number of different ways. Yes, treading carefully saves you from having to redo mistakes or to work around some irreversible damage caused by carelessness. But it also rewards you in the sense that you can watch the project’s inner nature reveal itself to you slowly over time. Those artists who speak in terms of having a conversation with their pieces are saying this in their own way.
The project began as a monitor riser. All I needed was a shelf to hold my monitor at a higher position so that I wasn’t staring downward at it all day. I grabbed some wood from Home Depot, set up in the shop, and finished in no time. But when I looked at my work, I realized I wasn’t prepared to call it finished. The underside of the riser would be great for stowing my keyboard and mouse, but wouldn’t it be nice if there were a small subsection to hold my laptop up off the desk in case of spills? Or a small drawer for pens and notepads?
And so the project evolved. First I built a divider in the middle to section off the laptop storage from what would become a set of cubby holes. And as the cubby holes came together, I realized they would be more functional if each cubby hole contained a drawer to better hold small objects. And so I designed four small drawers, as well as a larger shallow drawer, originally for stationery but which evolved into a drawer for beads and gemstones.
A workflow that aims to arrive at some finish line kills any chance of this type of thinking. Allowing yourself to do this freeform exploration permits you to nurture a relationship with the object you’re creating. The object becomes better suited to your actual needs; concepts crystallize into more useful results. But not if you treat the act of creation as something that can be finished.