Let There Be Light
This past weekend, we spent some time sitting in a tree in the woods watching a prodigious squirrel several stories up a maple releasing seed pods. We never actually saw the squirrel, just the results of their efforts as leaves rustled and pods rained down around us littering the trail. We cracked ourselves up trying to catch them as they quickly dropped in what felt like a very chaotic rhythm.
Walking home as a family, we talked about why this squirrel must be so hard at work in this particular moment. We talked about how all living beings work differently in different seasons - from the work of summer where we hike and camp and practice our swimming to this new school year which brings us back into the classroom (and studio) to be brave, meet new teachers and friends and prepare for new responsibilities and growth.
For our studio, this past summer was one of expansiveness. Something that we have been orienting towards for a while, but it all seemed to come together this season. We had our open studio event - our first in many years - where we met with local folks from as far away as Portland as well as several impressive people who biked across on the ferry from Seattle.
Putting ourselves out there is not always first nature for us, but the whole weekend reminded us how interconnected we all are. About half of those who showed up were people we knew already but who had never seen our space and may not have really known the extent of what we do here.
Some of the things that we have grown to see as everyday - like the fact that we have integrated robotics into our practice - is not something that many expected to find in our space. That quickly reminded us how unique it is to work in this way where current and age-old technologies are applied to almost everything we do.
It was also a helpful reminder for us to see how our ideas around honoring materials resonated with so many - especially here in the Northwest where so much of our more recent history and landscapes have been shaped by the extractive methods of the lumber industry.
The whole experience left us feeling proud of what we have slowly built here and reminded us how privileged we are to do the work that we get to do together in the place that we love most.
Over the same weekend of our studio tour, a podcast interview that we did with our brilliant friend and advisor, Holly Howard, went live. We covered everything from design, to becoming a certified B Corp, to our choice to build our business outside of a major city, to investing in robotics, to our devotion to the environment, to our recent cork collection, to what it’s like to work with a spouse and more.
When asked to participate, there was definitely some resistance that bubbled up. I (Chelsea) worried that I would misspeak or misrepresent what it is we do here, but as we discussed on the episode, there is always something new to learn. There was something for us to learn in doing the interview and there may be something that someone else learns from listening, and that kind of reciprocity is what it is all about.
This week, as we prepare for the autumnal equinox and all the seasonal change that it brings, we are also celebrating the recently updated lighting section of our website.
Our lighting has always been assembled using UL certified LED parts here in our Bainbridge Island studio. As of today, we are now offering full UL certification of each of our fixtures as an option and have added downloadable spec sheets to help further answer the questions that inevitably come up when selecting lighting for your projects.
We hope that this offering helps working with us to become even more streamlined as you return to your desks this fall.