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Visited @calebsisco of @paraplustudio yesterday. Have always been drawn to people who have creative focus and are heads down in their workshop, studio, or lost in guitar chords they’re strumming at the edge of the bed. Caleb makes functional art, but no question, it’s art. Very refined, yet I can see his hand in it…the human behind it…as he only uses hand tools and joinery to bring his pieces to life. by @paraplustudio

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4 months ago

We are feeling pretty lucky to live + work in wood in this corner of the world.

We visited #ThaddeusMosley and #TadaoArimoto at their studios on the North Side. These two wood artists are the most genuine, talented humans around. And then today, we rolled down from our studio in Troy Hill to see Thad’s amazing bronze renderings of a small selection of his woodwork in downtown Pittsburgh.

Grateful, indeed.

@sccpgh @culturaltrust @b.john_lang
📸 1st image in the carousel was captured by champagnefuzzbase Thaddeus Mosley (wood artist) Caleb Sisco and Alisa Sisco standing and talking together in his studio. taken in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by @paraplustudio

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2 years ago

Handcut dovetails and Chopin. It’s THE vibe.

Video description: sped up, tight frame shots showing the use of a coping saw to remove woodwaste in the pins of a dovetail joint. Additional scenes of hammering the dovetails in, followed by still images from several angles showing a row of completed dovetails. by @paraplustudio

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4 years ago

Low Style Walnut Bookcase - Commissioned 2026

This piece was an odyssey of emotion, grit, empathy and love. I was approached to design and craft a peice that represented home with a modern aesthetic. This will sit at the end of their family room to hold art, family heirlooms, memorabilia, books, and the occasional sleeping toddler.

Sitting a little over 12 feet long and 20 inches wide at the top, this piece was handcrafted using traditional joinery including sliding dovetails, mortise and tenons, rabbets, housing dadoes and some hidden doweling to suspend the baseboard in gravity.

Sapwood is the beating heart of this piece. I did my very best to develop harmony across the planes with the intention to create a natural flow of sapwood that travels across the piece.

Signature ash inlays are spread through the piece to stabilize knots and cracks naturally occurring in the material. The shelves are fitted with cherry book stops that serve a dual purpose of securing the dividers in place from the rear.

Creating with intention and from the heart is the only way I know how to create. I am sad to let this piece go, but our time together is over and its new company is patiently awaiting its arrival.

Video description: a slow pan of a low style walnut bookcase with live edge top, ash inlays, cherry accents, and a modern aesthetic.

#pittsburghartist #handmade #handtoolwoodworking #walnutfurniture #joinery taken in Troy Hill by @paraplustudio

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4 months ago

Big chipping on the first pass.

This low style walnut bench I’ve been building the last few months has 21 housing dados in total. I’ve gotten a lot of practice making these… looking forward to the more technical piece this summer :)

Video Description: A small router plane is pushed forward to cut big chips out of the board of walnut, creating a housing dado. A second and third pass clear up any missing pieces. The walnut has colors from white sapwood with a thing blue line before transition to rich brown. taken in Troy Hill, Pennsylvania by @paraplustudio

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6 months ago

Fatto a’mano, ogni giorno🤌🏻 Sound on. 🔊

Video Description: Cover image of two uncut splines in the mitered corner of a custom wood frame. Video showing a woodworker cutting off the splines of various in-progress frames. The last frame shows the maker holding a cut spline on his saw blade and flips it deftly.

#FattoAMano #WoodArt #Woodwork #CustomDesign #Spline #Hardwood #SustainableFurniture #BOH #FOH #Hospitality #ChefSkills taken in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by @paraplustudio

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3 years ago

Every detail of this waterfall kitchen bench was honed by hours of work and brain picking conversations with talented local makers, Eva Conrad and Jason Boone.

The character filled 🌳 Elm 🌳 was felled by @pittsburghurbantree on the site where the @frick_environmental_center is now located.

The stunning custom ceramic hardware was made by @depositunknown and specifically met the brief of our clients.

We are going to dive into the details and these makers individually in posts to follow. But for now, we simply want to say “dank je wel” 🙌 . by @paraplustudio

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2 years ago

Life in technicolor 🌈

By juxtaposing these trays in black-and-white, you can see swirling grain patterns naturally occurring in the wood, as well as the unique patterns in the clay.

Our latest collaborations with hand-built ceramicist, Eva Conrad, @depositunknown

*This limited run is sold out!*

#Pittsburgh #LocalTimber #BreakfastInBed Color version of previous photo showcasing the rich browns of the wood and peach clay handles. by @paraplustudio

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2 years ago

Designed and currently building a custom frame for a poster that serves as an artifact of an @thewarholmuseum sound series concert. This one is a throwback to a memorable performance by @kimletgordon, which accompanied the inimitable archival film “The Kiss”.

Video Description: woodworker Caleb Sisco uses a pull saw to cut wood waste material along a pinboard. He flips the removed piece with his blade like a chef.

#CustomDesign #Frames #HandcutDovetails #Woodwork #Pittsburgh #Northside #SmallBusiness #ThrowbackToPrePandemic #LiveConcertVibes #Memories #AndyWarholSoundSeries #TheKiss by @paraplustudio

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3 years ago

Hand-built ceramics 🤝 Handmade furniture

This year we jumped into a creative collaboration with Eva Conrad, a maximalist ceramicist located on the North Side of Pittsburgh. Together, we embarked on a project to design ceramic hardware, which adds to a custom kitchen bench and living room casework.

We explored uncharted territory, brainstorming how to connect Eva’s beautifully tactile hardware with our builds. Standardization became key. We pondered how to create plus attach the unique handles + pulls, allowing for easy swaps in the future.

Eva amazed us with a diverse array of 20+ samples, each showcasing vibrant glazes and one-off shapes.

Perhaps our favorite ticked box: The hardware Eva hand-built made our pieces Accessible to multiple generations under one roof, as our clients specified that one of the cabinets must be approachable for their toddler.

Thank you, @depositunknown ! by @paraplustudio

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2 years ago

This autumn wasn’t exactly sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows. Amidst the chaos, we found joy in imaginative works at Dutch Design Week.

• Dutch Invertuals: in the show “Specimen”, 15 designers were challenged to reimagine an armchair. It was the first exhibit space we visited that week with truly unique custom furniture. Dank je wel, Lotty, for showing us around and offering up in-depth context to each piece @scheublinlindeman @dutch_invertuals 🪑

• Studio Martens & Visser: The wall art featured in “Exo” has us thinking about veneer in new playful ways. It pushed the boundaries of this material, which typically has a vastly different application. Its dimensionality was striking. @martensvisser

• 9 + 1: This collective showed us the magic of washi paper in “Soft Silence”, transforming a traditional craft into modern, mesmerizing designs that were calming to contemplate and walk through. @_9plus1 @kazerneehv

• Thuy Trang Nguyen: Their furniture “translates intangible ideas into tangible products” and was inspired by Vietnamese fairytales. Caleb could not get enough of this wooden functional art.

• Maya Eline Leroy: Her hand built ceramic lamps were playful perfection. As we are exploring multi-media pieces between wood and ceramics, we loved this added inspiration to continue to push play. @mayaelineleroy

• Steven Banken’s “Interstice Stool” presented pops of color nestled in between unexpected details. @stevenbanken

The long-short of it: we steeped ourselves in design and will be back in 2025! 👀

#DutchDesignWeek #Playful #Design #Innovation #Sustainability #WashiPaper #Ceramics #WoodVeneer by @paraplustudio

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2 years ago

There were a number of designers at Dutch Design Week 2024 that looked to nature and amplified it. These artists made us take note!

Locations featured: Sectie-C and Klokgebouw Hall 3

• Rene Siebum is a master of woodwork + art. We only took one photograph when we visited him at his studio because we jumped right into material sourcing and the importance of knowing your sawyer + your sawyer knowing you. He also expressed to us how every bit of wood counts. Rene regularly makes limited runs of small wares from the remaining bits of larger designs/builds. Thank you for your generosity of time and spirit @renesiebum

• Tina Stieger and Mark Vrinzen employed the forest and captured the ever-changing colors of it. Their work, although separate, was a reminder that nature puts on a show that we should work with to our biophillic benefit. @tinastieger @markvrinzen

• Space for Biomaterials leaned into bio art. This group offered up examples of bio staining with sustainable alternatives made from soil-based bacterium, rather than from petroleum based applications. They also created booklets for attendees to takeaway so that we could attempt to bring these practices to our studio. Our favorite was the ‘material recipe’ zine, which may prove useful in Pittsburgh since we are flush with Japanese knotweed. 🌱 @sbyd.space

• Julie Heij harvested, made, and intricately wove grass paper into her work. It was expressive and beautifully documented in a video so that we could see the whole process from start to completion. Julie also took the time to talk with us about her work; she was such a calming presence in the hubbub that was Klokgebouw Hall 3. @julie.heij.makes

#DDW24 #Sustainability Sunrise in Valkenswaard with a bare tree top illuminated in the morning light. taken in Sectie-C by @paraplustudio

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2 years ago