Jan's
love of wood goes back as far as he can remember. As a kid
he could spend hours digging through stacks of hard wood
just to study the patterns in the grain.
It
was Knott's Berry Farm in the 50's, when he was still quite
young, that the idea of fine finishing blossomed in his
mind. He was crossing a bridge, along with a crowd of other
visitors, all running their hands along the railing. Suddenly,
acutely aware of the irresistibly smooth warmth radiating
up through his palm, he realized in that the railing had
been burnished to a golden sheen, not by some mysterious
chemical of man, but naturally, by the countless number
of hands passing over it.
Today
he is never satisfied with a piece until, through tireless
hours of sanding and polishing, he has coaxed that same
natural beauty to the surface of the wood.
Yearly brush fires and the thinning out of fruit trees in
his agricultural hometown of Fallbrook, offer an endless
source and wide variety of wood to choose from.
Some
days you might find him scouring a gully for trees and branches
with "character." He looks for thick-bark, misshapen
trunks, and survivors of flood, drought, wind and fire.
He is drawn to limb junctions and crotch wood with their
knots and growth compression. Trunk and root burls are favorites
because of their many"'flaws," which he calls
beauty marks.
"It
is by nature's trial that color, hardness and grain patterns
are enhanced." Jan Greenwald
