At Nakashima Studios: Exhipbition in honor of a reknown woodcarver

A visit to the Nakashima Studios in Solebury Township is a treat for several senses.

Of course, there's the obvious beauty of the magnificent wooden tables, chairs and cabinets crafted by George Nakashima (1905-90), an internationally known woodworker and architect, and his daughter, Mira Nakashima-Yarnall, who studied under her father for 20 years and now runs the studios.

Then there's the earthy fragrance of the wood, the black walnut, English oak burl, redwood and cherry. Thick, unfinished planks fill very available nook and cranny, awaiting to be crafted into works of art.

And there's the unique feel of wood, which Nakasima-Yarnall says comes from "a rubbed-oil finish and a lot of elbow grease."

You can rub your fingers along the top of a long table and feel the grain and texture of the wood, which still has a living, breathing quality to it

"We work this material, at times to fulfill this yearning of nature to find its own destiny, to give this absolute inanimate object a second life, even perhaps a first life," George Nakashima once said. 'To release its richness, it's beauty, to read its history and life..."

On Friday, Nakashima-Yarnall will lead a series of guided tours (1:30,2:30 and 3:30 p.m.) of the studios, telling the story other father and his wooden creations.

The Nakashima Studios are a family enterprise, run by the entire family: Marion, Nakashima's widow; Mira; and her younger brother, Kevin. Their love for the studios and the ongoing work is evident. And they make a visit seem more like a trip to a friend's house than a guided tour of a museum.

The tour will include the Conoid Studio, Minguren Museum and Reception House, which includes a Japanese tea room and bathroom.

All three were designed by Nakashima, who believed that form and function go hand-in-hand. A Nakashima chair is for sitting as well as admiring, and a room designed by Nakashima has a comfortable, relaxed feel to it and immediately makes the visitor feel at peace with the world around him. Nakashima was born in Spokane, Wash., the son of Japanese immigrants. He attended the University of Washington and earned a masters degree in architecture from MJ.T. in 1930. It was the height of the Depression, and Nakashima sold all his belongings and traveled the world for the next seven years, finally returning to Washington.

During World Warn, he and Marion and Mira, who was only 6 weeks old, were sent to a relocation center in Idaho, where Nakashima met and worked with a Japanese carpenter and furniture maker.

He and his family were finally released in 1943 and settled in Bucks County, where Nakashima began to build his reputation as a woodworker.

A 1945 newspaper article began, "Mira Nakashima is 3 years old. She lives in a strange new world at New Hope, Bucks County, amid ever-changing surroundings" and went on to describe how she spent her days watching her father in his workshop.

Nakashima-Yarnall went on to attend Harvard and got her master's degree in Japan and has continued her father's work, using his designs and adding her own.

When the Nakashimas moved to the property on Aquetong Road, Solebury, in 1947, there was nothing but 8.5 tree-filled acres. The family (Kevin wasn't born until several years later) lived in a tent while Nakashima first built his workshop and then the family house.

Through the years, a series of buildings—studios, workshops, storage facilities and houses—have sprung to life on the property, which is still very much alive with the sound of craftsmen at work.

The Minguren (a Japanese word that means folk craft) Museum contains some of Nakashima's earliest works, plus samples of different styles he developed through the years. Oil the outside wall is a mosaic by his good friend and well-known artist Ben Shahn (1898-1969).

What set Nakashima apart was his ability to study a piece of wood and figure out how to bring out its natural beauty. He pioneered the use of "free edges" in which the natural shape of the outer edges of a tree were used in the design instead of cutting and planing it to make it a perfectly straight square or rectangle.

Nakashima tables have twists and turns and knots and knobs. They have character.

"When I'm making something out of a piece of wood, I have a long dialogue with it, sometimes for years' Nakashima once said. "I have to find my own relationship with the spirit of a tree, and pretty soon, the wood evolves as a form".

"He did not want to impose his ego on the wood" is how Kevin Nakashima describes his father's technique.

In the years before he died, Nakashima dreamed of creating a series of peace tables.

The idea came to him after he discovered a huge black walnut tree in Long Island. After several years of negotiations with the owner, it was finally purchased, cut down and shipped to Solebury.

"My father wanted to justify buying this huge walnut tree,'' Nakashima-Yarnall said. "He wanted to do something special with it and decided to build a peace table—or altar—for each continent. It was his concrete (wooden, actually) symbol of peace."

The first peace table was made of two different 3-inch thick slabs cut from the tree, which when pieced together were more than 10 feet in length and width and weighed well over 1,000 pounds. It took 10 men to get it out of the workshop.

In January 1987, the table was dedicated as an Altar for Peace at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan.

According to the Rev. James Parks Morton, dean of the cathedral: "The beautiful black walnut table was blessed that auspicious night by representatives of the religions of the earth before diplomats of many nations. In the ensuing years, prayers for peace in all tongues and traditions and by all peoples have been offered here."

Nakashima died three years later, but his daughter has carried on his dream, overseeing the building of two more peace tables. The second, which will eventually be sent to Russia, was dedicated on Sept. 25, 1995, during the 50th anniversary celebration of the United Nations.

The Nakashimas still need to raise additional funds to ship the table to Russia and are still waiting for assurances from the Academy of Sciences in Moscow, the table's eventual home, that they have the facilities to properly display and preserve the table.

They would also like to work with the Russians to develop peace-oriented programs. On Feb. 29, 1996, the third table was dedicated in India at the International Community of Peace in Auroville.

Auroville was founded by Mother Mira of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, and Nakashima was one of the first disciples.

All three tables were ,cut from the same tree. Nakashima-Yarnall says there were two more planks from the same tree that will be made into a fourth table and two, even bigger slabs from an American black walnut found in California that will be used for a fifth table.

The table intended for Moscow is in the Minguren Museum and is astonishing in terms of its sheer size, beauty and texture. Although slightly more than 10 feet in length and width, making it close to square, the table seems to be heart shaped due to the angles and lines of the grain of the wood.