Why Make? Episode 48: Wendy Maruyama Part 1
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Why Make? Podcast
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Why Make Podcast, Wendy Maruyama Episode Part 1 Transcript
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00:00 Robb Helmkamp
Hello and welcome to Why Make, where we talk to makers from different disciplines about what inspires them to make.With your hosts Robb Helmkamp and,
Erik Wolken
Erik Wolken. If you would like to learn more about the makers we interview on Why Make please go our website why-make.com
Robb Helmkamp
And please help support the Why Make podcast and Why Make productions by making a tax refundable donation to us on Fractured Atlas.
Erik Wolken
Fractured Atlas is our new non profit fiscal sponsor which allows us to access a wide range of funding possibilities including funding available only for non-profits
Robb Helmkamp
Visit https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/the-why-make-project or go to the donate to Why Make page on Why-Make.com
01:01 Robb Helmkamp
Welcome to our first podcast of the 2023 season of Why Make. This episode is part one of our in depth conversation with the artist Wendy Maruyama.
Erik Wolken
Wendy Maruyama is a furniture maker, sculptor and retired educator who resides in San Diego California. Wendy’s work has tackled a wide scope topics from traditional furniture forms to exploring her Japanese heritage and the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during WW2 to the issue of endangered species.
Robb Helmkamp
As we discuss later in the podcast Wendy was born with significant hearing loss and cerebral palsy and at her request, to aid our listeners, we have included a full transcript of our conversation on our web page for this episode which can be found on the podcast page of why-make.com It can also be found in the episode notes on Apple podcasts
Erik Wolken
Please join us and take a listen to our wide ranging discussion with one of the more amazing artists in the woodworking field, Wendy Maruyama.
02:03 Erik Wolken
Okay, are we ready to have a very serious conversation about nothing?
Wendy Maruyama
Oh, yeah that will be fine by my book.
Erik Wolken
We'd like to welcome Wendy Maruyama to the Why Make? Podcast.
Robb Helmkamp
Welcome Wendy. Welcome to Why Make!
Wendy Maruyama
Thank you! Thank you for having me, you guys.
Erik Wolken
The question we always start the podcast with is: What is your first memory of making something?
02:00 Wendy Maruyama
Well, you know, I can remember when I was maybe four or five years old, my mom used to bring home these little art kits, craft kits, maybe not coloring books. But things that you had to like put together. And I remember very distinctly a paper cutout book where we had to fold them and they were sort of kinetic. I remember I was more interested in the whole fabrication process verses drawing and painting. Although I did draw and paint when I was little, but I preferred punching holes in paper and you know that sort of thing. So I would say that would be my earliest recollection of making stuff.
Erik Wolken
Right. So you are an active maker. You liked to be involved in the making. You weren't a passive maker.
03:47 Wendy Maruyama
Right. Got to be more than just a piece of paper and crayons. I want to ...Even if it meant crumpling paper up or stabbing a piece of paper with a dowel rod, or...
Robb Helmkamp
Not just making marks but making holes in things too, changing the shape of it.
Wendy Maruyama
Ripping things apart. I remember needle craft stuff too. Like working with yarn and string. And of course you know back in the 50s the kinds of toys one would get would be very much based on gender and I never got the little hammers and the screwdriver kits for kids, you know. I got the sewing kit and the dolls and that kind of thing. So hopefully that changed a little bit now, but I do remember that pretty clearly because I would go to my cousin's house. I had male cousins and they all had the really cool cars (coins?). That wasn't made available to me because I guess mom felt like I needed more of a Homemaking Type Kit.
Erik Wolken
What was your first introduction and attraction to furniture and woodworking when did that come?
05:12 Wendy Maruyama
Well, you… if you want the earliest: I remember in 6th grade camp, we got sent away to some mountain retreat. When we were all in 6th grade and I really kind of hated it because I hate camping and I hate hiking. I am just not into the outdoor scene. But the most fun things I remember… we had to find a piece of wood in the woods and bring it back to craft room and sand it. Make it all pretty and put oil on it. And I remember the transformation of the wood once I sanded it and made it all pretty and put oil on it, kind of magical. I think my mom still has this piece of wood somewhere. I think I saw it on her dresser a couple of years ago. But anyway, so that would be my earliest memory. But then my first piece of furniture happened when I was 19. I was taking a craft class at a junior college that was in San Diego called Southwestern College and they had an excellent craft program. And this would be the 70s and craft was really enjoying a huge revival at that time and so I was taking jewelry and ceramics. The craft class, we didn't really have a woodworking program, but we had a craft class, which introduced us to all sorts of things, like batik and textiles. And so that we did a little bit of ceramics and weaving and then woodworking was the final project and I was really intrigued by the fact that, you know, I was able to use the machines. And the other good thing was that the woman that was teaching class also made furniture. So kind of like wow, you know, Joanne can work in wood! You know, I'm going to learn how to work in wood. So anyway... I made a three legged chair that was really kind of organic, kind of poorly made, but I didn't know what I was doing. We didn't have any machines for doing mortise and tenon and she (Joanne) didn't use joinery in her work. It was kind of a California thing. We used a lot of dowels you know, and I think that was inspired by Sam Maloof who used a lot of dowels to fabricate his furniture and the dowels were decorative of course too. You know were you use contrasting woods with dowels. And back in those days, we were using a lot of leather so I had leather seat and it was uh pretty hippy influenced work. And its funny because I have the chair in my studio now and I want to replace the seat and maybe clean it up a little bit, you know. But anyway, that was my first piece of furniture. That would be 1971 maybe seven? Yeah '71.
Robb Helmkamp
That's great that you still have it.
Erik Wolken
You'll have to send us a picture of that piece. And if it was truly hippie Wendy, you would have macramé the seat
Wendy Maruyama
Oh, maybe.
09:26 Erik Wolken
Did you know who Sam Maloof was when you were 19
09:30 Wendy Maruyama
The episode Why Make? Episode 48: Wendy Maruyama Part 1 from the podcast Why Make? Podcast has a duration of
34:07. It was first published
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