Waste No Waste

We share space and ethos with Grain Surfboards NY.  One of our constant mantras in the shop is "waste no waste."  We reuse as much as we can, like blue tape and kraft paper, and recycle what can't be reused.  The fun comes in when we find new potential for what might be considered scrap.

Cut offs from veneers for skateboard decks have been made into beautiful block printed greeting cards and gift tags, bookmarks,  and long narrow strips woven into sculptural orbs for decoration (prettier than balloons and better for the coastal environment).

Cedar cut offs make great planks for grilling salmon and vegetables ~ and great host/ess gifts!

The cedar shavings from Grain Surfboards workshops have been used as bedding for chickens, garden mulch, packing material, and firestarter for beach bonfire festivities.

Some cut offs from furniture projects even become tail blocks for surfboards.

We are down to one bag of garbage a week for the shop~ but we know we can reduce more.

Please share your ideas, tips and experiences with reducing waste in the comments below!

Summer of Yes

The famed Eleven Madison Park opened a pop-up restauraunt, EMP Summer House, in East Hampton this June while their NYC location receives kitchen upgrades.  Will Guidara and Daniel Humm invited their entire staff to the East End for an incredible team building experience during the construction process.  A few local artists were invited to showcase their talents in the summer location (formerly Moby's on Pantigo Avenue) and we are delighted to be one of the few!

When you visit EMP Summer House, aside from a fabulous meal and impeccable service, you are welcomed into a family friendly experience .  Natasha McIvern, the designer of this groovy space, has created a series of environments where everyone can find their comfort level.  A more formal dining experience is available to the lucky few who can score a reservation (through American Express) in the main house, where you can view our gorgeous walnut console table, rustic bench, and live edge cherry and steel console table beneath a trio of our wine barrel stave mirrors, stained from the cabernet franc grapes that aged in the oak barrels. Also on display in the front of house is the stunning artwork of Bastienne Schmidt and Philippe Cheng.  Under the covered veranda you will find a more casual outdoor bar with two Grain Surfboards hanging above, a cozy nook with Stick + Stone's famed wine barrel stave swings and our living grain tables of oak and sun cured maple.  Beyond the veranda is an expansive yard with picnic tables, ping pong, bocce, croquet, and another of our wine barrel stave swings hanging from a tall tree.  This is a very family friendly environment where children can play games while adults sip rose, or indulge in a finely crafted coctail, one of which is aptly named Summer Of Yes.

We hope you have a chance to experience EMP Summer House before the team returns to the city after Labor Day.  Let us know what you think! 

Summer Workshops

My partner in all things, Brian Schopfer, leads workshops for people to build wooden surfboards.  It is an incredibly satisfying process to build something with your own hands ~ and it is next-level-joy to then go on and catch your first wave on a board you built!  People are so stoked about their experience that they inevitably want to share it; especially with those closest to them.  "Do you have workshops for kids?!"  We are asked all the time.  We've had thirteen year olds build their own boards, and 11 year olds build with a parent, but what about for the younger set?  

We are thrilled to offer makers workshops this summer for "kids" ages 6 to 96.  Weekday mornings we will host OPEN STUDIO: with guided projects each week plus access to a variety of materials to create freely in 2 and 3 dimensions.  Try weaving with veneer!  Or make a piñata for the 4th of July...

Weekday afternoons our projects become a little more involved, making this timeframe appropriate for ages 9-99.  We will offer weekly workshops in screen printing, paper making, print making, shibori dye, building bird houses, cement planters, and more!  Class size is limited to 8, so reserve your seat early.  Come daily, weekly, or for the duration!

All workshops will be held in our private courtyard beneath the Empress tree, and tented in the case of rain.  Classes will be led by Taya Beattie, of www.thestorybus.org, and me, Aynsley Schopfer.  We will have a few special guest appearances for workshops with local artists and makers, too!

In the weeks ahead our schedule will be laid out with much more detail.  Please don't hesitate to reach out with any queries you may have.  Looking forward to a fun and creative summer with you all!

Inspiration manifested

We have always been collectors of texture, color and form, pocketing treasures on daily hikes to bring into our home and studio for further contemplation.  My partner has a knack for finding heart shaped stones and interesting wood burls.  Our children, from the time they were walking, started their own "eclections" of lichen, periwinkles, seedpods and pebbles.  Eventually all of our horizontal spaces~ tables, countertops, windowsills, even the lip of the wainscoting~ were adorned with all of our gathered shells, stones, twigs, and pinecones.  

When our family moved from coastal Rhode Island to the east end of Long Island, we carried with us only our most cherished collection of stones and such~ amounting to nearly forty pounds!  Our new home has become just as full of nature's bounty and beauty; we are a house of sticks and stones.

As a family, we all love to build and create, inspired by the textures, shapes and colors we collect.  Wood, in particular, has a language of its own with its storied grain and live edge that speaks to us all.   My partner, Brian, has a gift of seeing a fine dining table in thick book matched slabs of walnut, an elegant mirror shaped with reclaimed wine barrel staves, and a surfboard in a pile of cedar.  Driftwood logs are corralled into forts and rafts and our boys whittle swords and wands with gemstone tips.  I make assemblages and mandalas from objects I collect as well as paintings of flora and fauna that remind me we are all part of this living, breathing life on earth.  Our aim is to create beautifully crafted furniture and art inspired by our reverence and love of nature~ and to encourage you to make some, too!   With this in heart and mind we present to you: Stick + Stone.

Welcome!

Aynsley, Brian, Eamon and James