My grandmother and her brother inherited their parents’ farm in Illinois. Her nephew lived there for years, and in 1986 he cut down a large walnut tree on the property. He had it sawn into lumber and kiln dried, then used half of it for a large dining room table and brought the other half to my grandparents’ house in Omaha, where it took up space in the garage for 18 years. Sick of it, my grandfather asked a local furniture maker to take a look at it and bid on making it into something nice. He said he could make a nice coffee table, and the price was $3000.

My grandfather thought that was nonsense, that one should be able to make more than that with half a walnut tree, and $3000 seemed like a lot for a coffee table.

I heard about this, and it was right about the time the furniture-making bug was burrowing under my skin. I was a sculptor, and I had some good woodworking experience, but I’d never made much proper furniture. I made my grandfather an offer: I told him I would make one piece of furniture for each of his three sons, following their specifications and helping them through the design process. In return, he would buy me a plane ticket to Omaha, a 10” Grizzly contractor’s saw and a lunch-box planer, pay for shipping of two boxes of tools and supplies, and feed me lunch for a month. He took the bait, and I set up shop in his garage in May of 2004. Conveniently enough, all the wood was already there. In four weeks, I built three pieces of special heirloom furniture, including this rocker.

This one’s sapelle, about 9 1/2” diameter.

Here’s a little bowl I made. It’s about 8” diameter, made of leopardwood and epoxy resin, dyed yellow.