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Jim Krenov was born on October 31, 1920, in the village of Uelen, Siberia, the only child of Dimitri and Julia Krenov. He and his family left Russia the following year, and after some time in Shanghai, China, they moved to a remote village in Alaska, where his parents worked as teachers. They lived in Alaska for seven years. Jim remembered airplane drops of goods and supplies onto the snow for the villagers. In one of those bundles was a good steel jack-knife. "From the time I was 6, I was making my own toys with the jackknife," Jim told. "It was a joy to me that I could rely on my hands and my eyes to produce things." Eventually, the family moved to Seattle. Jim spent his teen years there, where he developed a love for the sea and began building model boats at first, graduating to sailboats before long. As a young man during World War II, Krenov served as a Russian interpreter for the military when Russian ships docked in Seattle. He also worked for a ship chandler and spent a great deal of time surrounded by boats. It influenced his aesthetic. He loved the lines of boats: “There's hardly a straight line on them, but there's harmony. People think right angles produce harmony, but they don't. They produce sleep," Krenov said.
In 1947 Jim and his mother moved to Europe. In Paris, in 1949, he met his future wife, Britta. They were married on March 2, 1951. Jim and Britta traveled together in Italy and France, and spent many summers in the mountains of Sweden where they liked to hike and he fished for trout in the mountain streams. Always a writer, Krenov published several articles and a novel chronicling these travels.
A friend in Sweden got Krenov a job building wooden architectural models for a restaurant designer; later Krenov got himself a spot at the Stockholm design school run by Carl Malmsten, considered the father of Scandinavian furniture design. He attended the famous Malmsten school for two years and then struck out on his own, keeping a shop in his basement. Toiling anonymously for years, he gradually built a reputation for his simple design. Once established as a master woodworker, Krenov also began sharing his expertise. "Krenov really helped re-create an interest in fine woodworking that had largely died out by the 1950s," says Frank Ramsay, president of the Bay Area Woodworkers Association, "Such a change from the 'make a box, cover it with plywood and paint it' era of the 1960s." Over time, Krenov received numerous requests to document his design philosophy in book format. In 1976, Krenov’s first book, “A Cabinetmaker’s Notebook” was published. The positive response to that first book surprised Krenov, and he ended up writing four more books including a final book that showcased the work of his students,”With Wakened Hands.”
Krenov taught and lectured about his approach to woodworking at places such as the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, Boston University, UC Santa Cruz, Graz, Austria, as a Fulbright guest at New Zealand’s Craft Council, Takayama, Japan, and Anderson Ranch, Colorado. "I traveled all over the world to talk about my work," Krenov said. "These weren't high occasions - just people interested in talking with a craftsman. I'm known as the guy who is always interested in the thing that is both beautiful and useful."
In 1981, Krenov was invited to start the Fine Woodworking Program at the College of the Redwoods in Fort Bragg, California. Over the years, people from all over the world would come to the school. He retired from the College of the Redwoods in 2002 but continued to work in wood almost to the end of his life, from a shop at his home. His work is displayed in museums in Sweden, Norway, Japan, and the United States, as well as in the homes of some royal families. He became an Elected Fellow, American Craft Council in 2000, and was the first non-British recipient of the Annual Award of the Society of Designer-Craftsman's Centennial Medal in 1992. Krenov was presented with The Furniture Society's Award of Distinction in 2001.
In 2003, Fine Woodworking magazine asked Krenov how he would like to be remembered... He responded, “As a stubborn, old enthusiast."
Krenov died in Fort Bragg, California on September 9, 2009. He was 88 years old.
Influence
Krenov is revered by many craftsmen for his inspiration to bring into one's work simplicity, harmony and above all, a love of wood. Krenov's books A Cabinetmaker's Notebook and The Impractical Cabinetmaker shun ostentatious and overly sculpted pieces, stains, sanded surfaces, and unbalanced or unproportional constructions. Krenov felt that details such as uniformly rounded edges, perfectly flat surfaces, and sharp corners remove the personal touch from a piece of furniture. His books extoll the virtues of clean lines, hand-planed surfaces, unfinished or lightly finished wood, and techniques that Krenov referred to as "honest".
Approach
Although he made a living of his craft, Krenov referred to his attitude towards his work as that of an amateur, feeling that the competitive attitude of a professional causes one to compromise one's values as a craftsman. He avoided calling the conception and creation of a piece as "design," preferring a more inclusive term "composing." Composing, explained Krenov, is reacting to the wood, a continual re-evaluation and improvisation open to wherever the wood takes the composer.
In his cabinets and other pieces, Krenov paid careful attention to variations in woodgrain and color in his search for "harmony" in a piece. A self described "wood nut," he often sought out woods that are rare, highly figured, or containing unique coloration. Krenov was also highly critical of those who seek "originality" at the expense of well made furniture.
Although Krenov believed machinery has its place in the shop, (namely to efficiently complete the relatively grueling and crude early stages of stock removal and thicknessing) he felt an over-dependence on power tools removes the "fingerprints" left on the finished piece that only handwork can leave, and alienates the craftsman from his work. Krenov criticized the trend in woodworking schools toward the early use of power tools, instead of building a foundation of hand skills. Instead of focusing on which machinery one should buy, he put emphasis on having well-tuned equipment.
Graduates from Krenov's College of the Redwoods classes have gone on to professional furniture-making, writing craft books, and teaching in many programs throughout the world.
Selected writings
- (1976). A Cabinetmaker's Notebook. Studio Vista. ISBN 0-289-70754-4.
- (1977). The Fine Art of Cabinetmaking. Studio Vista. ISBN 0-289-70797-8.
- (1979). The Impractical Cabinetmaker. Van Norstrand Reinhold. ISBN 0-442-24558-0.
- (1981). James Krenov: Worker in Wood. Van Norstrand Reinhold. ISBN 0-442-26336-8.
- Krenov; Janofsky (2000). With Wakened Hands. ISBN 1-892836-06-8.
- Krenov; Finck (2005). Making and Mastering Wood Planes. Sterling. ISBN 1-4027-2022-X.
External links
- Krenov's personal web site
- A transcript of an interview with Krenov, stored at the Smithsonian Institution
- The Furniture Society's Award of Distinction
- San Francisco Chronicle story with video from 2008
- New York Times obituary
http://www.crfinefurniture.com/1pages/shopinfo/jkobit.html
James Krenov was born on October 31, 1920 in Wellen, a Chukchee village on the Arctic Circle in Siberia. As his parents sought out a more promising situation, he spent nearly two years with his grandfather in Shanghai.
His mother obtained a position with the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a teacher. Her work took the family to Alaska for two posts, from 1924 to 1928, and from 1930 to 1933.
The family relocated to Seattle where Jim began a career with a nautical bent, working at the Jensen Motor Boat yard where yachts were built and refurbished. He moved on to a ship’s chandlery, while spending leisure time sailing small boats around Puget Sound.
As a result of his position at the chandlery and his background, he was sought out as a Russian interpreter for the Lend-Lease program before America’s involvement in World War II, and served throughout the duration.
In 1947, Jim moved to Sweden where he worked at a fluorescent fixtures manufacturer. During an excursion to the Continent as a “pre-Kerouac hippie” he met his future wife, Britta, who was studying French in Paris. They were married in 1951.
His career as a cabinet-maker began when a display in a fashionable shop in Stockholm captured his interest. Upon inquiry, he found that the graceful, sturdy furniture that appealed to him was made at Carl Malmsten’s Werkstada. He was enrolled in the two-year program at the Malmsten school in 1957 after “they let me in just so they could get rid of me.”
Upon his graduation, he set up shop in the basement of his home in Broma, Sweden where his work and his relationship to it gained recognition among peers and acquirers. Early visitors to his shop included Craig McArt and Martin Puryear, who were at the time pursuing academic goals. Commissions during this time included a box to contain a collection of prized ceramics belonging to King Gustav of Sweden.
Jim’s abilities as an instructor and speaker began to blossom in the late ‘60’s. He taught at Malmsten’s in 1967 and 1968. His international engagements began with an invitation from Craig McArt and Wendell Castle to teach at the Rochester Institute of Technology(RIT). Subsequent teaching engagements included the establishment of the program in Wood Artisanry for the Franklin Institute of Boston University, and as a Guest Professor in Graz, Austria in 1978.
The response of students at RIT led McArt to encourage Jim to try a hand at writing. Publishers of the result, Cabinetmaker’s Notebook , sent him on a barnstorming author’s tour of the U.S. This led, in turn, to an invitation from the University of California, Santa Cruz, to conduct a workshop. Three of the students at that workshop were members of the Mendocino Woodworker’s Guild; they enticed Jim to conduct a workshop at the Mendocino High School in 1978. One led to another in 1979, and again in 1980.
In the meantime, Guild members, with support of local board of trustees and instructors, persuaded the College of the Redwoods (C/R), a regional community college with a budding branch in Fort Bragg, to establish a cabinetmaking program. The building, in which classes are still held, was finished with the help of the first group of students in the fall of 1981, and was the first building owned by C/R in Fort Bragg.
Invitations to speaking engagements continued. He presented two months of workshops as a Fulbright Guest of The New Zealand Crafts Council in 1984. In 1989, the newly established Hida Global Institute in Takayama, Japan, invited him to conduct a series of workshops and lectures. He has also led workshops at Anderson Ranch in 1989 and 1990, and at the Center for Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine, in 1995.
Jim’s skills were evident long ago; in 1938 he won a bicycle for his entry of a ship’s model in a studio promotion of the Mutiny on the Bounty starring Charles Laughton.
More recently, he takes pride in being the first non-British recipient of the Annual Award of the Society of Designer-Craftsman’s Centennial Medal, bestowed upon him in 1992. The American Craft Council elected him to their College of Fellows in October of 2000, and he was a recipient of the Furniture Society’s Award of Distinction, in March, 2001.
His first four books, A Cabinetmaker’s Notebook (1976), The Fine Art of Cabinetmaking, (1977), The Impractical Cabinetmaker (1979), and Worker in Wood (1981) were first published by Van Nostrand Reihold and have since been reprinted by Sterling. A German translation of Fine Art,Die Kunst Des Möbelbaus was released by Ravensburger in 2000. With Wakened Hands was published by Cambium Press in the Fall of 2000. A Japanese translation of Notebook published early in 2009.
Jim retired from teaching at the College of the Redwoods, but continued to build cabinets until his eyes began to betray him. He spent the last two years in his shop making hand planes, and was still eager to share his discoveries in their creation. He could make them by feel as much as by sight.
In early June of 2009, it became apparent that he could no longer see well enough to work safely, and on his own terms as ever, he closed his shop. In spite of his discouragement, he was gracious with visiting friends until his last days.
Jim left this world with a small piece of wood in his hand and his family at his side. His ashes will be scattered in the ocean somewhere along his favorite path.
Britta suggests that those wishing to make a contribution in his name do so to the James Krenov Scholarship at the College of the Redwoods.
"Here we talk about the 'why' of cabinetmaking." JK
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