Photo Essay by Brandon Herrell
Things built with a human hand have a different kind of feeling. Bow Edison is a small artist colony a couple hours northeast of Seattle. The “town” comprises about two blocks, featuring galleries, a vintage store, a bottle shop, and a a small handful of quaint, delicious food spots. Everything in the town rings with the quality of artisanship, down to the pedestrian walkways, elevated a few feet from street level.
The local cabinet shop has a little shack off the main drive with wood scraps for sale. Slabs of live edge hardwoods and offcuts from interiors projects line the walls, priced according to size and quality. The woodshed inspires daydreams of Nakashima furniture. Thankfully, the cabinet shop has a room for rent across the street, and that’s where we stayed.
Things built with a human hand have a different kind of feeling. Bow Edison is a small artist colony a couple hours northeast of Seattle. The “town” comprises about two blocks, featuring galleries, a vintage store, a bottle shop, and a a small handful of quaint, delicious food spots. Everything in the town rings with the quality of artisanship, down to the pedestrian walkways, elevated a few feet from street level.
The local cabinet shop has a little shack off the main drive with wood scraps for sale. Slabs of live edge hardwoods and offcuts from interiors projects line the walls, priced according to size and quality. The woodshed inspires daydreams of Nakashima furniture. Thankfully, the cabinet shop has a room for rent across the street, and that’s where we stayed.
The guest house delivers on all the bespoke, handmade details you might expect from a home design-built by a cabinet maker. The bedroom’s dressers hug the curves of the barn roof, and the grain on the kitchen cupboard doors is so lovely as to inspire long stares.
The nice and the annoying thing about spending a couple days in a tiny arts colony is that when the modest selection of businesses closes (at 7PM), you’re out of luck when it comes to dinner. Since there was rain in the forecast, we felt homemade congee was the cozy, warming dinner we needed.
We pulled the stony, jade-green speckled RIM bowls from the custom cabinets, chopped the herbs and placed them in the smaller bowls for serving, and set the rice to cook on low while we went out to fetch a bottle of wine ten minutes before the shop closed. A scruffy little dog greeted us at the doorway. I like to think he was just a local, hanging out for his evening social hour.
We pulled the stony, jade-green speckled RIM bowls from the custom cabinets, chopped the herbs and placed them in the smaller bowls for serving, and set the rice to cook on low while we went out to fetch a bottle of wine ten minutes before the shop closed. A scruffy little dog greeted us at the doorway. I like to think he was just a local, hanging out for his evening social hour.
The gingery congee gave us the cozy feeling we needed to brave the weather outside and troubleshoot the gas firepit on the back deck. Our pal Miles surprised us with a little bottle of tequila he’d bought surreptitiously at the bottle shop, so we filled a few of the small CAST glasses and cozied up by the gas fire to watch the sun go down over the Samish Bay.
Brandon Herrell
Brandon Herrell is a photographer and writer living in Seattle. Having grown up on the rocky shores of the Puget Sound, he endeavors to carry the serene energy of those landscapes through his work. Through his portraits, still life, and lifestyle photographs, he weaves themes of open space, nature, and introspection. What results is a window to into a lifestyle which is slow, intentional, and truthful.
http://www.brandonscottherrell.com/
Brandon Herrell is a photographer and writer living in Seattle. Having grown up on the rocky shores of the Puget Sound, he endeavors to carry the serene energy of those landscapes through his work. Through his portraits, still life, and lifestyle photographs, he weaves themes of open space, nature, and introspection. What results is a window to into a lifestyle which is slow, intentional, and truthful.
http://www.brandonscottherrell.com/