Jeff and Katrina Seaton often work collaboratively on their award winning exotic wood boxes. The wood is sawn, constructed, and sanded by Jeff while Katrina embellishes their larger sculptural boxes with raffia, or embossed copper plates. She helps in the buffing and polishing of the wood with oil and wax, to bring out the three dimensional, light to dark grain, or chatoyance, in the highly figured, rare woods they favor. Very few woodworkers sand it, as they do, with seven different grits of sandpaper to perfection, so that it can be polished like a gem stone.

Jeff, who has been a self-sufficient woodworker since the 70's, notes that some people will open every piece to look inside as if "a hidden space within a space subconsciously attracts them" to his boxes. But we suspect it's the richness of the warm and glossy wood that invites touching, as we marvel at the dramatic, colorful textures and patterns possible in nature.

Jeff & Katrina Seaton's work may be found in HumanArts Gallery. For more information please contact us at 805-646-1525.