Chris Rasmussen
Chris has a distinct voice as an artist, it speaks to us of balance, proportion and tactile beauty. His pieces beckon to be touched and our imagination fills with plans for where to place it, what arrangements will fill it and wonder at the process.
Cedar Rose Woodworking is the natural extension of Chris's personality, a shop of intense creativity, innovation, triumph and occasionally, bitter disappointment. Situated at the headwaters of the Missouri River in SouthWest Montana, he has access to many types of wood right on his farm. His active lifestyle keeps him roaming the hills and gulches finding, considering and harvesting a variety of trees. He rarely cuts a live tree for any work, preferring instead, aged standing dead or burned trees for his vases, frames and furniture.
VASE WOOD HUNTING WITH FRESA
Capable of seeing into the wood, he will observe the temperament in each specimen before removal, he has studied the suitability of the native trees in the area and knows most personally long before he cuts them to bring home. When selected wood arrives in the shop, each piece is evaluated before any turning begins. Quality and proportion are judged, then form and style are decided on.
Chris is a craftsman of formidable skill and singular intuition. Each piece receives his complete attention and every aspect of the process consumes his imagination and ability. He works comfortably with big tools, the lathes and saws, with hand tools, drills and sanders and tiny picks and brushes. The shop is filled with his inventions, some created for just one project, others used on every vase.
The procedure is remarkable, invented entirely by him and impressive to watch. His passion is visible during the work where raw wood is transformed into a rough vase, sanded and hollowed, the painstakingly polished and finished. The operation is unique to his shop, and his ingenuity shines out of each iconic vase.
Chris is an outdoorsman of principals, both hunter and conservationist, his rapport and bond with nature extends into his working his love of beauty transmits genuinely in every extraordinary composition he creates.