I first saw this piece by Jason Hernandez at ShowPDX 2008 thinking ” I HAVE to meet this guy” and grabbed his business card.  The woodworking skill and design was clearly at another level.

I later found out this piece below won the award for best furniture of the year in Portland Spaces Magazine.  He described to me that the design is an intentional departure from his regular aesthetic which is heavily influenced by his formal woodworking schooling at College of the Redwoods.  Im drawn to the “Jetsens” like forms.  Make sure you click on this link to go to a great writeup on his piece.

He was nice enough to give us a tour of his shop today.  I love seeing people’s workspaces.  I like checking out their organization, little models and prototypes they have lying around, and of course- geek out on powertools. Jason told us about new projects hes working on, some woodworking techniques, and the chaboo he has started.

Jason Hernandez Shop Visit from Ken Tomita on Vimeo.
Ive been nice and havent embarrassed Jason in this blog post yet but that wouldnt be fair to all the other artists Ive ripped on so Im going to embarrass him by featuring him in the first VIDEO on this blog.  YAY!

Chaboo by Jason hernandez from Ken Tomita on Vimeo.
Jasons chaboo is made of Ash which will be stained black. There will be an aluminum feature as well that will contrast nicely with the black. Cant wait to see it!

The online fashion. design. culture. magazine ULTRA has written up about Lisa Kuhnhausen and her chaboo!

Lisa Radon, the editor of Portland Spaces and UltraPDX found Lisa K through THIS VERY BLOG!  Im so happy that Project Chaboo has started to help people gain more exposure.  This is only the beginning boys and girls….

I had the privilege of seeing the work of Thomas Huang and meeting him for the first time tonight at Oregon College of Arts and Craft.  His work is in a group show displaying there through February 22.

Notice the connections between the three materials he uses: bamboo strips, laser cut steel, and rough sawn wood.  Unnoticed to most is the skill, care, and time required to prep the bamboo into these delicate strips.

Tom learned how to work bamboo from my friend Jiro Yonezawa here in Portland a few years back.  According to local lore- he moved out here on a whim and lived in Jiros basement, learning from the master all while eating only bananas and soft serve ice cream. Ok… only part of that is true.

Tom is faculty now in the Industrial Design department at the University of Kansas.  I actually emailed him 5 years ago asking for advice as I faced a crossroads in my education.  He doesnt remember giving me advice, and I dont remember what he said.

Nonetheless I remember he tried his very best to be helpful and I appreciate that.  Thanks Tom- whatever you said worked!  Im continuing the chain by being as helpful as possible to young people- ok that makes me sound O L D.

GLOBAL “CROSS CULTURALIZATION” places us all in a state of negotiation and resolution.  My work reflects this condition through the reconciliation of dissimilar materials within the language of furniture.  It is a language that celebrates physical sensuality, emotional sentiment, and visual harmony; a common global language.  I am drawn to the potential of funriture objects to enable intimacy and to the care and detail of their making.

So of course I told him about Project Chaboo. He shyly asked me if he could participate.  Are you kidding me?  It would be an honor.  Stoked!

Daaa daaa daraaa  daa daraaaa~  dddaaa ddaaa da dara, da daraaa~ (darth vader theme song)

Chaboo revealed!  Im building a ship onto the back of a chaboo and Evan B Harris will be painting it!

I love this movie poster for Star Wars episode1.  Anakin either has a really bad haircut or is darth vader.

The aniticipation for Project Chaboo isnt quite on the level of Star Wars episode1 buuuut… it never hurts to dream a little.  Aim for the sky, shoot for the stars.  Is that how it goes?

ship chaboo adventure to be continued….

Here is a teaser on my chaboo collaboration with Evan B. Harris

Can anyone guess what Im up to here?  All I have to say is sometimes my job is so fun and exciting its ridiculous!

more coming soon….