Synopsis: Rick Mastelli says Northern California’s Baulines Guild works because it is the simple extension of the self-styled craftsmen who characterize the Bay Area. This article traces both the path that led Art Carpenter, who heavily influenced the guild, to woodworking, and the start of the guild. Starting with just a lathe, within a few years Carpenter’s work was winning exhibition in the museum show that first inspired him. The guild’s purpose is just to put interested people in touch with one another, enabling apprenticeships. The philosophies the two share — Carpenter and the guild — are complicated and admirable, contradictory and yet seamless.

From Fine Woodworking #37

Ten years ago, in days left over from the Sixties, the Baulines Craftsman’s Guild set out to establish a Northern California version of the apprenticeship system, and it is unique among craft organizations for having succeeded. Hundreds of craftspeople have gotten started through the Baulines Guild. Most of the woodworkers among them apprenticed with Art Carpenter, who by the time the Guild was founded had already established himself as one of the principals of contemporary woodworking. In 1971 his work appeared along with that of Wharton Esherick, George Nakashima, Sam Maloof and Wendell Castle at the inaugural show of the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C.

For many woodworkers, Art Carpenter (who does business under his mother’s maiden name, Espenet) is more than a role model—he has nurtured the growth of a generation of independent designer-craftsmen. Ask the successful woodworkers in the San Francisco Bay Area how they began and you’ll hear, “I taught myself, except for some time I spent with Art.” Even those who don’t spend more than an afternoon at Carpenter’s shop leave with practical direction to make it on their own—which is really the spirit of the Guild. The Baulines Guild works because it is the simple extension of the self-styled craftsmen who characterize the Bay Area. It probably would not have worked so well were it not for the special place Bolinas is, but it’s hard to imagine the Guild at all without Art Carpenter.

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