This L.A. artist turns wooden scraps from guitars into midcentury-inspired artwork

Entering into woodworker Eric Blackwell’s Woodland Hills dwelling, you’re feeling as when you’re getting into a bespoke furnishings boutique. That’s as a result of a lot of the decor was handmade by Blackwell after he and his spouse, Jee, purchased their home in 2012.

You’ll discover a walnut wooden butcher-block island within the kitchen measuring 5-by-5 ft, fabricated from 1,500 items, together with reducing boards comprised of upcycled maple guitar necks, a reclaimed walnut credenza in the lounge and handmade wood gentle change covers within the rest room.

Though these items stay unique to the Blackwell family, clients know 43-year-old Blackwell, who’s from Anaheim, for his handcrafted paintings made largely from reclaimed guitar wooden.

Discussing his work and course of, Blackwell jokingly describes himself as having an “unlucky illness” of constructing issues. His creations vary from guitar stands priced at $179 to mid-century-style clocks beginning at $300 and items of huge marquetry — an artwork type involving inlaid work comprised of small items of variously coloured wooden or different supplies — priced at $1,800.

Regardless of solely transitioning to his full-time artistry from his job as a guitar-builder lower than two years in the past, Blackwell is already making a reputation for himself because of his work, which is featured in California boutiques like Trina Turk and the Frank Lloyd Wright Basis retailer. It’s also possible to discover his artwork on the Blackwell Woodworks web site.

It could be onerous to consider that this meticulous woodworker, sculpting delicate artwork items in his dwelling studio, was as soon as a rocker swinging his guitar round on stage in highschool.

After Blackwell graduated from Moorpark Excessive Faculty, his ardour for guitars led him to Tom Anderson Guitarworks, a guitar-building workshop in Newbury Park, in 2001. Since then, woodworking has been an integral a part of his life.

“I used to be surrounded by huge machines, cool instruments and large boards of lumber used for guitar constructing,” he says. “If there have been leftover items, we’d stack them up and burn them as firewood. So I began amassing these small items of mahogany, rosewood and maple, and also you scratch your head and notice, ‘Oh, can I make one thing with this?’ ”

Rising up, Blackwell would typically go to his grandfather’s Buena Park dwelling, which was embellished with an eclectic assortment of thrifted clocks. Regardless of dropping his thumbs and fingers from a home fireplace when he was very younger, Blackwell’s grandfather ingeniously tailored his work instruments and have become the pinnacle of upkeep for the native college district. Blackwell would assist him with varied tasks.

Fittingly, Blackwell’s first piece created from the wooden scraps at work was a clock for his grandfather. A trapezoid design in mid-century and Artwork Deco kinds, it was met with shock and pleasure: “Eric, it is a $50 clock,” his grandfather advised him.

“In his thoughts, that was actually costly,” Blackwell says. “He would by no means spend $50 on a clock.”

This expertise sparked a wellspring of inspiration for Blackwell. In his spare time at Tom Anderson, the place he was in a position to make use of machines he didn’t have at dwelling on the time, he developed extra clock designs, sustaining a constant mid-century aesthetic with quirky shapes similar to pyramids, avocados, eyes, stadiums and televisions.

“I’m drawn to the futuristic really feel from the previous,” he says. “When you consider the ’50s and the ’60s, after we had been inventing all these new issues, there’s a bit of American historical past in there.”

Blackwell additionally started exploring the artwork of marquetry, creating works that usually characteristic inlaid patterns of bushes, mushrooms and geometric shapes.

Among the many creations he’s most happy with are his guitar stands. As a guitarist, Blackwell understands the worth musicians place on their devices. Typical guitar stands available on the market as we speak are “ugly and cheap-looking” objects fabricated from steel or plastic, he mentioned. He goals to design aesthetically pleasing stands that musicians can use to show their guitars with pleasure.

After quite a few drafts and numerous changes for angles and weight distribution, Blackwell developed two designs, for electrical and acoustic guitars. The stands include two triangular hardwood constructions that clip collectively by magnets, with naturally tanned leather-based attachments for the guitars to relaxation on.

“I really feel like all the things practical also needs to be creative,” he says. “You’ll be able to relaxation your guitar on something, however why not put it on a pleasant piece of furnishings?”

In March 2023, Blackwell transitioned to full-time artistry, launching his model Blackwell Woodworks so he might dedicate himself to new designs and customised items for his purchasers.

For Tom Anderson, founding father of Tom Anderson Guitarworks, who’s been a mentor and “second father” to Blackwell for 22 years, watching him go from a newbie to a skillful craftsman isn’t a shock.

“Via his time [at Tom Anderson], you can inform he at all times had his concept of doing one thing inventive at the back of his thoughts,” Anderson says. “We each knew when it was time, , for him to move out on his personal.”

With a household of 4 — Jee, 46, a hairdresser, and their two sons, Owen, 14, and Allen, 12 — Blackwell was initially involved about whether or not a full-time artwork profession might maintain their family. He gave himself a one-year deadline to determine if it might work; if not, he‘d return to constructing guitars.

“Clearly, that by no means ended up occurring,” Jee Blackwell says. “It’s nonetheless scary fascinated by the place issues will go, however it doesn’t matter what, he retains chipping away at it. And the enterprise retains rising little by little.”

Working from his dwelling studio, Blackwell has extra time and area to develop bigger works. As a SoCal bonus, the secure and dry local weather in Los Angeles is right for woodworking all 12 months. And Blackwell can simply spend weeks meticulously reducing, staining and arranging small geometric tiles right into a 24-by-40-inch wall artwork piece.

Mates described him as a nerdy perfectionist.

“So long as I’ve identified Eric, he at all times has one thing that he’s all about,” says Ken Anderson, a enterprise growth supervisor at a biotech firm who has been an in depth pal with Blackwell for 20 years. “And when he’s all about one thing, he’s studying it and changing into a grasp.”

Ken Anderson remembers Blackwell’s various pursuits, from golf and guitar to poker and pool capturing. Blackwell additionally constructed a big dwelling brewery a couple of years in the past.

His pursuits apart, Blackwell is absolutely dedicated to his woodwork. “That is what I do to loosen up,” he says. “I really like taking over a brand new undertaking after which determining how you can do it.”

Jee Blackwell typically reminds her husband to take breaks from his work. “We’ll be sure like, ‘Alright, go get Dad. He has to eat,’ ” she says. “In any other case I don’t even know if he’ll eat.”

Solely his sons’ baseball video games can pull him away from his work. Blackwell coaches Owen and Allen’s groups and by no means misses a sport. In his studio, two magnets on a cupboard show photos of the boys of their baseball uniforms.

“He’s an important dad,” says Tom Anderson, including that Blackwell at all times made certain to take holidays along with his household when he was at Tom Anderson. “I bear in mind after I began my enterprise, I used to be working on a regular basis, however I feel he hits an excellent stability.”

Blackwell’s sons typically assist out within the studio, sweeping up wooden mud and sanding boards. Blackwell encourages their creativity and guides them in making small woodwork tasks. Final Christmas, Owen made wood key chains with engraved initials for every member of the family.

What helps Blackwell keep refreshed and arranged is a set morning routine. He wakes up at 6 a.m., makes espresso and takes a half-hour stroll round his neighborhood, the place he enjoys seeing bunnies and listening to birds sing.

“One factor I discovered from all that strolling is to not convey any earpiece to hearken to music or podcasts,” he says. “Simply be bored. Don’t plug up your senses the place you possibly can’t hear what’s occurring round you.”

After his stroll, he rides his mountain bike on the Las Virgenes View Path for an hour. Bike-time, he says, is for concentrating, planning his day and problem-solving.

Past his morning routine, Blackwell cites friendships as his “secret weapon” for his inventive course of.

Robert LeJeune, from Echo Park, is one in all his frequent callers. Their friendship began when Blackwell supplied him home-brewed beer after LeJeune constructed fencing for his home. With a background in engineering and gross sales, LeJeune was a key supply of knowledge when Blackwell began working his personal store.

“Eric isn’t shy to ask for recommendation from many individuals, and I simply occurred to be one in all his trusted advisers,” LeJeune says. “It’s at all times a pleasant name. It’s not at all times nearly enterprise.”

As an enormous supporter of Blackwell’s work, LeJeune typically tries to buy his merchandise however not often succeeds in paying for them.

“If I attempt to order something, he would return my cash and convey me no matter I ordered,” says LeJeune, who has three clocks and two guitar stands from Blackwell Woodworks.

Finishing a bit isn’t the top for Blackwell. He typically asks purchasers to ship pictures of his work of their houses so he can revisit his artwork.

“They’re his infants,” LeJeune says. “He’s a real artist at coronary heart.”

Blackwell says he’s glad to see a resurgence within the appreciation for handmade objects. He’s trying ahead to attending Modernism Week, an exhibition of midcentury structure and design, in Palm Springs from Thursday by Sunday to indicate his work.

“I get quite a lot of pleasure out of making and making woodworks,” he says. “And also you join with individuals who wish to know that these items are made by human beings. That feels actual.”