Unique Personalities
By Ken Weingartner
When Wood Takes On A Life Of Its Own
Joel Shepard is not simply making luxurious furniture. He’s painstakingly crafting works of art.
When Joel Shepard was a child, his parents sometimes would give him lumber and nails and let him pound away in the yard. He had no idea at the time, but working with wood would become his career.
“Maybe that’s where it got started,” says a laughing Shepard, an award-winning furniture-maker from Seattle. “It was a great way to get rid of me for the day. I wouldn’t come home until night.
“I’ve always loved to tinker, not necessarily woodworking. I remember watching my father. He was a meat-cutter in a grocery store, but he did all kinds of handy things around the house. I became handy. I didn’t know I had this specific talent, but I knew I always loved to work with my hands and create or fix things.”
Shepard grew up in southern California and after high school spent time as a Russian translator in the Air Force. When he returned to the States and attended college, he began making decorative boxes as gifts for family and friends. Soon he was selling his works in Seattle stores.
“It grew from a hobby to an obsession to a lifelong career,” says Shepard. “My pieces kept getting bigger. I started doing shows and commission work. People would ask if I knew how to make something, and I would be like, ‘Sure. No problem.’ And then I’d go figure out how to do it.”
Shepard’s early work was influenced by his time in the service spent near the Khyber Pass along the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Some of his work today echoes Asian themes that are so much a part of the Northwest style, but he is comfortable working in a variety of styles and periods. He looks constantly for new ideas and challenges.
“I spend hours and hours, not only on the Internet, but pouring over books for details that I know are going to be authentic to a particular period,” says Shepard. “I’ve got all kinds of projects in my head that I’d love to do, but it’s a matter of need and a matter of time.”
Each year, Shepard completes up to three major projects, like a Biedermeier-inspired standup computer cabinet that took more than 1,200 hours to construct. With the remaining time, he makes smaller items, such as tables and chairs, and does restoration work.
“Projects begin not with the design or style of a piece, but the needs of the client,” says Shepard. “With the computer cabinet, it started with the client standing in the room, holding his hands where it would be comfortable to work on a computer. I knew he was interested in Biedermeier, so I just explored ways to incorporate aspects into the design. That was a total tour de force of not only skills, but creativity and inventiveness to make it work.”
Working with wood is often an organic process.
“You start with an idea, but as the piece starts to grow, it tells you what needs to be done as far as little details,” says Shepard. “I just follow that idea down the rabbit hole and it goes where it goes. When it’s done, it quietly lets you know.
“When it’s done, you know that you did it, you know that you’re proud of it, but you know so much of it did not come from you. The process has its own sort of soul, its own sort of life.”
Shepard is featured in the book, “Perspectives on Design Pacific Northwest,” which was released earlier this year and showcases architects, homebuilders, landscapers, interior designers and craftsmen from the region.
“It sure is nice to see your work in hardcover,” says Shepard, laughing. “Something you can leave with the kids.”
_________________________________________________________________________________
Industry Mourns the Passing of an Icon
Jon Douglas succeeded by ignoring the perceived limitations of the boutique firm.
Jon “Jack” Douglas was a player. Whether on the tennis court, football field or in the boardroom, Douglas’ competitive fire led to success. But Douglas, too, was a leader. He was the type of player that made everyone around him better.
Douglas died July 27 in Brentwood, Calif., at the age of 73. A tennis and football star at Stanford, he later became a real estate icon through the creation and evolution of the Jon Douglas Co., which grew to nearly 70 offices in California before it was purchased by Coldwell Banker in 1997.
“Jack was the first person, in my mind, to get the idea that you could scale a boutique,” says Lou Piatt, who met Douglas in 1979 and was president of Jon Douglas Co., for 15 years. “The common myth, and I think it still prevails, is the only way to retain the intimacy and quality of a boutique is by limiting a company to one or two offices in a very small market. Jack instinctively knew he could scale a very classy, upscale company.”
Douglas’ approach was rooted in his athletic background, which included being Stanford’s first All-American tennis player and representing the U.S. in the Davis Cup multiple times.
“He always had that instinct to praise in public and critique in private,” says Piatt. “I think it came from his experiences with the coaches he admired. He had a wonderful way of setting remarkable professional goals for the company and the individuals in the company and then getting out of the way. He let people grow and he allowed them to make mistakes.
“Jack was one of those very rare individuals that left everyone he met with the impression that he was their best friend. That was just one of his great gifts and legacies.”
- Jon Douglas was inducted into both the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Hall of Fame and Stanford Hall of Fame.
[...] Unique Personalities [...]