LIHU‘E — Dragon’s eye, copper pod, tropical almond and rainbow shower: The trees woodworker Joe Sullivan harvests for his hand-crafted tables reads like poetry. More familiar woods like lychee, mango and coconut are also among his repertoire. “All the wood
LIHU‘E — Dragon’s eye, copper pod, tropical almond and rainbow shower: The trees woodworker Joe Sullivan harvests for his hand-crafted tables reads like poetry. More familiar woods like lychee, mango and coconut are also among his repertoire.
“All the wood I need grows on Kaua‘i,” he said. “I have such a wide array of wood available to me, I never stain any of my work.”
Twenty years ago Sullivan moved to Kaua‘i with his family, bringing a sawmill with him. Since then he’s pursued his love of fine, hard woods by crafting tables for his Kaua‘i Rare Wood Company in Lihu‘e. See his work on display for the first time at the Kaua‘i County Farm Bureau Fair underway now, where he has more than a dozen of his original designs in as many kinds of wood.
Winding through his Lihu‘e warehouse packed floor to ceiling with an array of lumber, saws and finished tables, Sullivan sweeps the sawdust from a square table top to reveal the iridescent sheen of copper pod.
“I see the face of an old man in here,” he said, tracing a finger along the jowly impression at center. “It looks like tragedy from the Greek theater.”
These treasures buried beneath bark and burl are what keep Sullivan devout in his craftsmanship.
“When you cut into a log you’re seeing something no one else has seen,” he said. “It’s sublime.”
A favorite wood to work with for Sullivan is lychee.
“People routinely cut these down and take them to the dump,” he said. “I try to catch them before they do.”
The burls in an old lychee provide a scorched edge, adding character to his creations, he said.
“It takes age and stress to create complexity,” he said. “Older trees are like older people. They have so much more depth.”
Sullivan’s courtship with trees began when he worked as a tree-climber for Asplundh, the world’s largest tree-trimming company, he said. Hoisted high into the woods on a telescopic crane, trimming trees is how he worked his way through college, he said.
A maker of both artful and traditional tables, he attributes a minimalist approach to his admiration for Shaker furniture, lauded for craftsmanship and simplicity.
“If I can use three legs on a table instead of four I do it,” he said. “Less is more.”
For more information e-mail Sullivan at sullys.wood@hawaiiantel.net or visit him at his booth at the Kaua‘i County Farm Bureau Fair this weekend.
• Pam Woolway, lifestyle writer, can be reached at 245-3681, ext. 257 or pwoolway@kauaipubco.com.
