The front half of Pamela’s humble workshop where she grinds and finishes the work. In the darker recesses of the shop she casts the concrete.

That’s not to say it’s all bad: the monotonous labor affords many hours of contemplation for Pamela’s artistic and intellectual endeavors; she gets to choose her hours (to some extent); she gets to live out in the beautiful Redwoods of Cazadero and frolic on the beaches and trails when not working; and of course, most of all, she creates beautiful pieces of furniture as a result of this labor. She would much rather be paid to make artistic cubes than to do office work in a cube — that’s her motto.

Looking classy! Pamela wields her grinder with a respirator, waterproof gloves, rainboots, and her ‘wetsuit.’

Two Pliny end tables with artichoke leaves from a single plant.

Hello and welcome to Holmes Wilson Tables. We have recently migrated over to a new web design which we hope will enlighten your browsing and purchasing experience. We have always taken our web presence very seriously and so have tried to make it an intuitive, aesthetic process. Please browse our products and contact us for any questions or inquiries. Note that you can click the image of each product to see more pictures and a longer description.

In this blog, we will post pictures of our latest designs, available products, and Holmes Wilson philosophies and interests. One philosophy central to our business is the desire to incorporate the natural world into our work. Every one of our tables has a story and personality; their infinite variation never fails to excite us. Organic elements are beautiful, stochastic fractals — random patterns determined both by mathematics and the life of the organism. Life has visual textures, multidimensional nature, and vivid colors that all let the eyes rest easy.

We incorporate earth and life elements in several ways: Brad carves up beautiful chunks of wood into table bases or standalone pieces. The different knots, gnarls, twists, wisdom, and experiences of each tree all show their face when the polished wood is naked of its bark. Wood is easily malleable, but practiced hands can make its story shine. Even in death, the trunks of many great trees live on as powerful but elegant tables which can be handed down for generations. As the wood dries, it grows lighter; every year an inch deeper into the core is dry and the table is a few pounds lighter. Brad often works with the Redwoods of his own property and reclaimed wood from other local properties, as pictured on the right.

An example of the raw, reclaimed Cypress that Brad works with.

Pamela’s concrete is a sleek, modern, and more ‘manmade’ contrast to the rawness of wood, although it has great beauty and earthiness as well. The concrete, aggregates, and pigments we use all ultimately come from the earth. Different combinations of these natural substances can lead to an incredible range of color and consistency (although we ensure the concrete is always pleasantly smooth to the touch with various techniques practiced over the years). Pamela also embeds freshly picked leaves from her garden into the concrete to imprint the complex, fractal veins, her artistic signature. We are essentially quickening the fossilization process to overnight! All leaves, even ones from the same plant, have different patterns of veins and subtle textures that concrete captures brilliantly. The imprint can be filled with more concrete of any color to make a pristine, smooth finish, or left empty and raw for the more adventurous spirit, as seen left.

If you enjoy nature and organic substance, you should consider how our work would decorate your home or garden. Earth tones and natural shapes can enhance a living space enormously by appealing to our evolutionary desire for nature. The contoured but solid lines of the concrete, on the other hand, imbue strength and structure to the scene. We are proud of our ability to juxtapose these two different aesthetic factors in unique and pleasing ways.