For most people, wood is an unsexy material — the workaday stuff of foundations and flooring and furniture — but for the sculptor and designer Joshua Vogel, it is one of the most dynamic and vital substances on earth. For more than a decade, Vogel has been making deceptively simple wooden objects — tiny salt spoons, elegant sawhorse tables — according to the most rigorous principles of craftsmanship. 

Under the name Blackcreek Mercantile and Trading Co., which is perhaps best known for a range of understated black cutting boards, he and a small team craft by hand one-of-a-kind pieces that honor the unique qualities of the wood they carve, from the curve of a branch to artful cracks......Continue Reading

Top image: Inside Blackcreek Mercantile & Trading Co.’s first store, in upstate New York. Image © Grant Cornett

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