Keeping the craft alive

This issue’s theme, Farm to Table, is a fun one to write about. There are so many cool local people growing delicious foods for us to put on our tables and, ultimately, into our bellies. I wanted to stick with the theme, but considering how heavily we’ve focused on farms, I decided to find a local craftsman (or woman) who makes the tables we sit at to eat the fruits and veggies and meats that come off our local farms.

Enter Todd Boese, a fifth-generation woodworker who invited me out to his Butteview Woodworking shop in west Chico recently to talk about his craft. Amid the sawdust and 2-by-4s sat tables, chests and other works in progress.

“I consider myself an artisan,” he said. “I’ve never done the same thing twice.”

Proving his point, he flipped through photographs of some of the pieces he’s created—from a gigantic dining room table supported by three glass slabs so it appears to float on air, to a paisley-shaped coffee table he says is “the coolest thing I’ve ever made.”

It struck me, while talking with Boese, that there really aren’t that many true craftspeople around these days. Americans are generally more concerned with getting what they want immediately and for cheap than they are with waiting and paying for quality. Boese agreed with me.

“In today’s instant-gratification-driven society, patience is not a virtue people have,” he said. A typical project takes him 14 to 16 weeks.

Luckily, since Boese moved to Butte County in 1997, the Internet has made the world a lot smaller place. On his Facebook page (www.facebook.com/butteview.woodworking), for instance, he posts photos of his pieces and gets “Likes” from as far away as Germany and India. He said when he started, most of his work was for locals, but about eight years ago he met an interior designer in San Francisco who liked his workmanship and regularly hires him for custom furniture. “Now 95 percent of my business is down there,” he said.

I’m a sucker for handmade items, pieces that are one-of-a-kind, that take real care in creating. (I suppose I wouldn’t be writing this column if that weren’t true.) So I’m inspired by people like Boese who, despite the Walmarts and Costcos out there offering cheap, mass-produced items, continue to craft beautiful pieces, by hand, to order. Thank you for making the world a prettier place. And for building those tables on which we can enjoy our local feasts.