When Sam Maloof died in 2009, at 93, he left behind an unlimited stash of lumber. Even in his final years, with extra wooden available than he might ever presumably use, he stored on shopping for. He cherished wooden and cherished working it. He additionally left behind the fascinating home he had constructed, room by room, over the a long time an hour east of Los Angeles (with out ever pulling a allow, he as soon as confided with a smile).
In 2000, when a freeway got here by, the home, by then on the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations, was moved to a property a number of miles away, the place it’s now open as a museum and the place you’ll additionally discover the workshop of Sam Maloof Woodworker, now run by Mike Johnson, who spent 30 years working immediately with Sam.
Maloof realized the fundamentals of furnishings making working for the commercial designer Harold Graham; in any other case he was self-taught, and bootstrapped himself right into a rarified place because the designer and maker of some of the iconic chairs of the twentieth century. The Maloof rocker, which has made its manner into museums, the White Home, and personal houses worldwide, is catnip for aspiring chairmakers, who’re drawn to its type and technical challenges.
Maloof’s talent as a craftsman was finest appreciated on the bandsaw, which he performed like a violin as he free-handed S-curved slats, arms, and rockers, breaking each rule of normal bandsawing. “Don’t do it like I do,” he mentioned. “I solely do it this manner as a result of I didn’t know any higher.”
Onward and upward.
Like Esherick and Nakashima, Maloof spent years constructing his personal home and filling it with furnishings. And like them, he labored indefatigably, proper to the tip of his life. The images on this web page had been all taken at his house, which included his workshop.
The austere Maloof.
Although well-known for the flowing curves of his rockers, Maloof had a extra restrained aspect that emerged when he designed case items, which tended towards rectilinear simplicity.
Maloof’s furnishings has impressed woodworkers of all stripes. However as anybody who met him even briefly found, his character may need been his most compelling trait. It mixed charisma and appeal with thoughtfulness, a listener’s ear, a present for friendship, and an inexhaustible urge for food for participating with others.
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