Craftsmen (French: artisan, Italian: artigiano) are skilled craftsmen who handcraft or create things that can be functional or purely decorative. Five Vineyard artisans who rely on craftsmanship share with us the details of their craft, as well as their thoughts on art and craftsmanship.
I had a degree in mechanical engineering, then I worked at Gannon and Benjamin for about five years making wooden boats, and it was like getting a second degree in mechanical engineering.
After Gannon and Benjamin, I worked with juvenile delinquents at Penikese Island School, where I was a versatile person because my job was to come up with projects to do things with the kids. It’s a very low tech environment with cold water and very little electricity… I decided I wanted to get into metalworking and blacksmithing was the only thing that made sense. He welded a primitive forge and began to hammer there. That’s how it all started in Penikes, the first forge I ever made. I used to make bronze fittings for yachts at Gannon and Benjamin. Shortly after I left Penikese, I decided to try my hand at metalworking full-time at Vineyard.
Decided to try and become a self-employed locksmith with great results at Vineyard. I don’t know if I’ve made a fortune, but I’m very busy and enjoy my work. I rarely do the same thing twice. Each work borrows from other works. I think of it as three different things: exciting design work – concrete details, problem solving; artistic creativity; and simple work – grinding, threading, drilling and welding. It perfectly combines these three elements.
My clients are private clients, businesses and homeowners. In addition, I often work with contractors and carers. I have made many handrails with a similar range. People can have steps, they want to go down steps safely, and they want something beautiful. Also, big construction companies — I have two very important jobs right now, railing systems that are multi-part, and there are a few parts that need railings to keep [people] from falling. Another one of my specializations is fireplace screens. In particular, I install doors on fireplaces a lot. Recently there was a code requiring doors on fireplaces. My materials are bronze, wrought iron and stainless steel, with some copper and brass.
I recently designed dogwood flowers, morning glory, roses, and also made shells and nautilus shells for the fireplace screens. I have made many scallop shells and their shape is as easy to make and as pleasing as a rose. The reeds are actually quite picturesque, although they are an invasive species. I made two decorative screens out of swamp reeds and they were awesome. I like to have a certain theme – it doesn’t always fit and it’s more of an animal than a plant. I made a railing with faucets at both ends and a whale tail at the end of the front door. Then I did a great job a while ago with a railing with a whale’s tail on the bottom and then a whale’s head on top.
The handrails I made for the courtyard steps in Edgartown and other buildings in the city were bronze. The final design is called the tongue, a floating curve at the end. I didn’t invent this form, of course, but here’s my interpretation. Bronze is a great material, more expensive than wrought iron, but holds up beautifully, requires little maintenance, and is a particularly good material for handrails where hands become smooth and polished during use.
Almost all. This is one of the reasons why I consider myself both an artist and a craftsman. I almost never make anything that I consider sculpture just a work of art. That’s why two years later I came to look at those railings and slapped them first to see how hard they were and see if they would hold up. With the armrests in particular, I thought a lot about making them as useful as possible. I don’t need armrests in my life yet (we’re all moving in that direction), but I’m trying to realistically imagine where armrests would be most useful. Relationship between handrails and traffic flow. Landscape stairs that curve along someone’s lawn is a completely different process of imagining where to put the best railing. Then you imagine the kids running around and where it will work for them.
Combination of two things: I really like irregularly curved landscape railings where there is a big layout problem to get the hard metal material to move smoothly in a graceful curve so that it fits and creates a nice functional railing and it looks good. . All these things.
The mathematical intricacies of curved slanted railings are a very interesting problem…if you can get past them.
I came to this island 44 years ago. I did a little research on seashells and found a book in Martha’s Vineyard called American Indian Money about the importance of copper quail shells to indigenous peoples on the East Coast of North America and how shell beads are formed. Wampum has different meanings for different people. I started making wampum beads from quahog shells I found on the beach, but not necessarily from council beads, which are traditional Native American beads.
When I was in my early 20s, I rented an apartment with the Bentons and lived in Thomas Hart Benton’s home in Aquinn on Herring Creek. Benton’s son Tippy lives next door. I had a lot of cats to solve the mouse problem – it was Tippy’s idea. It’s Charlie Witham, Keith Taylor and I – we’ve opened a small mint in our home in Benton, making beads and jewelry the old fashioned way.
Continuing to use beads and jewelry, I really wanted to go to Italy, especially to Venice. For my 50th birthday and my husband Richard’s 50th we went to Venice and I was inspired by the mosaics and tiles there. It must have taken centuries – all the stonework is assembled into intricate patterns of optical illusions – beautiful, using all the colors of marble. At the time, I was making jewelry size mosaics from my resin and carving shells. But to do something more: do it! I have to figure out how to make tiles.
I then ordered fired but unglazed biscuit tiles. I can build on them – these are my tiles. I like to use moon snails, seashells, sea glass, internal shell racks, turquoise nuggets and abalone. First, I’ll find the shells… I’ll cut out the shapes and flatten them as much as possible. I have a jeweler’s saw with a diamond blade. I used my jeweler’s saw to cut the wine bottles to make them as thin as possible. Then I decide what color I want. I will be mixing all these cans of epoxy with paint. It makes me thirsty – I crave it – color, very important.
I like to think of the first tile makers in Venice; like theirs, these tiles are very durable. I wanted mine to be very smooth, so I cut all the shells as thin as possible and shed the bits with tinted resin. After five days of waiting, the resin hardened and I was able to sand the tile down to a smooth finish. I have a grinding wheel, it needs to be sanded three or four times, and then I polish it. I’ll name the shape “feather” and then I’ll draw a compass drawing with the four directions, or points, on the compass.
I call my tile “home decoration” because people can use my tile as a theme in their kitchens and bathrooms to add a touch of “island treasure” to their home. A client was designing a new kitchen in Chilmark and had the idea to place my small tiles on a large area of infill to make a countertop. We worked a lot together – the finished counter is really beautiful.
I give the client a color palette, we can read books, we can choose colors. I made a kitchen for those who are very fond of green – a certain color of green – I think I made 13 tiles that were interspersed.
I made a wooden frame so that I can carry the accent tiles everywhere, people can take them and try them on wherever they see fit. Maybe tile on the back of the fireplace or a mantelpiece. From the inlay, I made small wooden stools. I want people to be able to choose their own tiles, so I haven’t gotten stuck on tiles yet. Once the options are selected, they will require grouting.
Martha’s Vineyard Tile Co. there are tile samples, they send me orders. For special projects, people can also contact me directly.
I will do any laying. I started out as a brick and mortar manufacturer, mixing earth for my stepfather who loves to lay stones. So I’ve been doing this from time to time since I was 13 and now I’m 60. Luckily I have other talents. I kind of evolved to do three things that I really love. My work is related to 3rd Masonry, 3rd Music and 3rd Fishing – a really good balance. I was lucky enough to get land when it was possible to land on the island, and I overcame this hump. In the end, I was able to switch to more things instead of specializing – it’s a very good life.
Sometimes you get a big masonry job and you just have to get it done. In the summer it is better not to lay, if I can help. I’ve been tasting shellfish and fishing all summer. and play music. Sometimes we go on trips – a month we were in the Caribbean, St. Barth and Norway 12 times. We went to South Africa for three weeks and recorded. Sometimes you do one job or another in a row and then keep running.
Of course you can burn out. Especially if I know there are fish, but I’m busy laying out rocks and they’ll kill me. If I have to do something and not be able to fish, it’s very hard. Or, if I don’t have masonry in the winter and I freeze shellfish, I may be missing out on good interior masonry. The music is wonderful because it plays all year round: in the winter you annoy the locals, so every weekend we leave the island. During the summer, the locals don’t go out and there are new faces every week, so you can keep working in the same place and sleeping in your bed. Go shellfish fishing during the day.
With masons, the bar is really high here. For as long as I can remember, we have had a construction boom on the island, and there is a lot of money. There is a good job, so there is a lot of competition – it must be a good job. Clients benefit from a high level of craftsmanship. Trading in itself is beneficial. Excellence is good.
As early as 30 or 35 years ago, Lew French, a stonemason, began trucking in stones from Maine, and we have never seen a stone as suitable as he is now, or the stone he used. We realized that we could bring ten wheels of stones from anywhere. If we are driving through New England and we see beautiful stone walls, we can go to some farmers and ask if I can buy a bunch of stones? So I bought a dump truck and do a lot of it. Every rock you throw at your truck is beautiful – you can almost name them, you can’t wait to use them.
I work alone and try a lot of stones and they all fit but when you take a step back and a lot of people say… no… some of them say… maybe… then you’ll put one in, and he’ll say… …yes… it’s your choice. You can try 10 stones and someone will say yes, baby.
The top and sides will take you in a new direction… there must be harmony in it, there must be rhythm in it. He cannot just lie down, he must be comfortable, but he must also move.
I think the easiest way to explain this is because I am a musician: this is rhythm and harmony, this should be rock …
Lamplighter is a complete line of lighting products. We have our standard models: wall sconces, pendants, column mounts, all in colonial style. Our street lamp model in Edgartown is a replica of the real street lamp on the island. That’s all. They were not designed by me, they are all standard, roughly based on open source samples of that period. New England dialect. Sometimes people want something more modern. I’m always open to talking to people to change the design. We can see things distorted and see potential.
In a world where 3D printing is used, the tools I use are almost 100 years old: fractures, scissors, rollers. The lights are still made the way they were. Quality suffers in a hurry. Each lantern is handcrafted. Although it is very formulaic – cut, bend, fold – everything is different. For me, it’s not artistic. I have a plan, that’s what I do. Everyone has a formula. It’s all done here. I cut glass for everyone, I have my own glass templates and I connect all the pieces.
Originally, when Hollis Fisher founded the company around 1967, the Lamplighter store was located in Edgartown, where Tracker Home Decor is now located. I have a 1970 Gazette article that explains how Hollis started making lanterns as a hobby and then it became a business.
I mostly get jobs from architects. Patrick Ahern was great – he sent people in my direction. During the winter I worked several big jobs at Robert Stern’s firm in New York. Great job in Pohogonot and the Hamptons.
I made a chandelier for the State Road restaurant. They hired interior designer Michael Smith, who gave me some ideas for pendant lights. I found some old tractor hubs – he likes them – it’s almost like an agricultural craft on a gaudy wagon wheel contraption. I think about gears and wheels, just their shape and form. In fact, this project brought me seven or eight similar things, each of which depends on the material. Local gallery owner Chris Morse needed something for the dining table, and I found a long model of the case in his gallery. I like that I can take something and let it exist on its own. So, this is a case model, I have it in the store, hang it up for a while and live with it. I used some great hardware that I found.
Recently, a customer brought this industrial long galvanized chicken feeder. I could add some fluorescent lights in there – all of these things are repurposed, beautiful and well made.
I studied fine arts as an undergraduate student and then as a graduate student in painting; now I have a painting studio in Grape Harbor. Yes, they really are opposites: arts and crafts. Creating lights is a little more formulaic. There are rules, it’s linear. There is an order to be followed. There are simply no rules in art. Very good – good balance. Making lanterns is my bread and butter: these projects have been before me, and it’s nice not to have an emotional connection, and I can just worry about quality.
All this complements each other – art and craftsmanship. I must find someone in the workshop whom I can train; this will give me more time to complete custom lighting work. This is my day job… this painting is my weekend job. I’m glad I don’t make money from fine art; I thought that the work would be compromised, but it turned out that it was not. I use it to do whatever I want.
She studied drawing, illustration and graphic design at the art school. Then, 30 years ago, Tom Hodgson taught me how to write and make signs. I am addicted and love it. Tom was a wonderful teacher and gave me a great opportunity.
But then I got to the point where I no longer wanted to breathe the fumes of oil paint. I would like to do more design as I am interested in decorations and patterns. Designing the logo with a computer program allowed me to expand the possibilities of logo design to include printed waterproof graphics. This results in a faster and more versatile product and these digital files can also be used for business cards, advertisements, menus, vehicles, labels and more. Edgartown is the only city on the island that wants to paint their logo, and I’m impressed that I’m still holding the brush.
I split my time equally between graphic design and sign making and love every deal. Right now I design and print labels for Reindeer Bridge Holistics, Flat Point Farm, MV Sea Salt and Kitchen Porch products. I also print banners, create graphics for vehicles, print fine art for artists, reproduce photographs or paintings on canvas or paper. A wide format printer is a versatile tool, and knowing how to use these programs to enhance your images makes everything possible. I like changing the status quo by adding new products and technologies. I kept raising my hand and saying, oh, I’ll think of something.
When I interview my clients, I find out what styles they like. I explain their vision and show them some ideas with different fonts, layouts, colors, etc. I’m going to present several options, each of which I consider to be winning. After the fine-tuning process, we were ready to brand the image. Then I will make the scale work for any application. The signs are funny – they need to be read. The Internet does not know where the sign is located, how fast the car is moving – the contrast needed to make the sign stand out – whether it is in the shade or in a sunny place.
I wanted to respect the look and feel of my client’s business by incorporating their colors, fonts, and logos, while also ensuring “logo integrity” across the island. I thought about what a vineyard is, it comes in different styles. I work with the building inspectors on the island and sign the bylaws committee. A lot of attention is paid to the correct proportions so that the logo is easy to read and beautiful. It’s commercial art, but sometimes it feels like art.
I help people brand their business with thoughtful slogans and good advertising spaces. We often brainstorm together and dig deeper to get to the point where text meets visual to create a rich and authentic feel. These ideas work when we take our time.