Fashionable Maker: Blackwell Woodworks

Upcycled guitar scraps are remodeled into Mid Century Fashionable-inspired clocks, music stands and artwork items by a gifted luthier.

The place most solely see castaway wooden scraps, luthier Eric Blackwell sees MCM clocks, music stands, and artwork items. “I’m a guitar maker,” Eric says. “Guitars are produced from superb, high-end woods and, sooner or later, I made a decision I needed to make one thing from the items we might throw away.” As he was considering of various methods to make use of the scraps, he got here throughout an intriguing piece at a swap meet.

It was a wood Mid Mod fashion clock, and he was immediately taken by its minimalistic design. “I noticed that the leftover items from my guitar builds have been good for Mid Century Fashionable artwork. It actually was a state of affairs the place the supplies and their shapes match the fashion,” he says. Therefore, Blackwell Woodworks, situated in Los Angeles, California, was born.

A Distinctive Path from Guitar Scraps to MCM

Guitars have been the distinctive path that led Eric to woodworking. As a teen, he started working at a guitar manufacturing unit in Newbury Park, California—and has labored on the firm for the previous 20 years. It was there that he discovered the superb artwork of guitar constructing and purchased a skillset that overlaps into different avenues of woodworking. “I used to be surrounded by a number of gifted guys, and that’s the place I obtained my coaching,” Eric says. “I’ve taken what I discovered from constructing guitars and have been in a position to apply these strategies in distinctive methods.”

Eric was impressed to start his personal enterprise in 2018 after seeing the reactions of family and friends when he made them retro-inspired items as presents from the upcycled wooden from the guitar manufacturing unit. “I used to be having a blast, and so I started to place my items on Etsy. It grew from there, and I’m excited it’s gotten so large,” Eric says. He’s now expanded and has a thriving on-line store the place Mid Century Fashionable aficionados snatch up his one-of-a-kind items.

Private Type

Eric’s fashion merges vibrant persona with high-quality woodworking, captured in each ability and supplies. “Guitars are produced from the best woods, so the scraps I exploit for my clocks, stands and artwork are as properly,” Eric says. Figured maple, mahogany, walnut and rosewood discover their means into his creations, the place they’re showcased in all their magnificence and given distinctive life below Eric’s experience.

“I do issues utterly in another way than a conventional designer may,” Eric says. “I’m unorthodox in my strategies, so it offers my items their very own look.” He loves developing with designs that emphasize the enjoyable aspect of MCM fashion, and works with a companion, Sarah Gencarelli, for a few of his paintings. He’s desirous to collaborate with artists and welcomes different creatives to contact him to work collectively. On the finish of the day, he’s comfortable that his work has discovered its finest expression within the classic fashion. “I’m a guitar man who’s fallen in love with Mid Century Fashionable design,” he says. “I’m actually having fun with it.”

To be taught extra, about Eric and his guitar scraps put to distinctive MCM decor makes use of, go to blackwellwoodworks.com & observe Eric on Instagram @blackwell_woodworks.

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