DeEtte & Allan Platters
My wife, Tiffany DeEtte, and I have collaborated on these platters for years. We both love glass art and the translucence glass provides, but since glass and wood don’t get along in their creative processes, we found a resin that is able to give us the effect we were dreaming about. With our love of woodworking, and a week long process that uses nearly every tool in our studio (and there are lots of them), we create each platter with attention to grain, pattern, color and detail.
Colorflow Paintings
The drive to create new works and challenge myself never seems to fade. The materials used in our platters have inspired me to try combining them in a different way and led to my latest passion–creating mixed-media colorflow paintings. Using koa, to highlight Mother Nature’s incredible art, and resin, each has an integral koa frame. The depth of shimmering color and the way they blend–it’s 90% me and 10% chance–which keeps them fun and interesting for me.
Sculptures
The majestic beauty of koa, and the fact that all the koa I use comes from dead, fallen, and dying trees, makes me want to use every bit to my highest ability. It is such an amazing endemic wood–I mean, leave it to Hawaii to come up with a wood that shimmers like a cat’s eye gemstone. My freeform sculptures are dictated by the shapes of Mother Nature with a bit of me thrown in. Each is unique, just like the tree it come from.
DeEtte & Allan Jewelry Boxes
In 2006, my wife, Tiffany DeEtte, and I started collaborating together making jewelry boxes. With her design background and my construction background, we created jewelry boxes that she’d want to own. And as much as I’m given the credit for all of it, I have to say, my wife spent years in the studio by my side–cutting, shaping, sanding, and finishing. She really does do fine woodworking. But I’m pretty lucky–she’s good at many things and now has an art agency representing me and my latest work.
Furniture & Collaborations
Making a piece of furniture is a completely different kind of rewarding. Tiffany and I worked together on these pieces, and even enlisted the help of our friend Josh Johansen, to make this dining table for the 2013 Hawaii Wood Guild Exhibit. We were a bit overwhelmed when it won 1st place for Joinery as well as the Artists’ Choice award. And it found a home during the show.
There are also a couple of wall pieces Tiffany and I did that have lead to my new paintings.
Woodturnings
In 2008, I was given my first turning lessons by master woodturner Dan DeLuz, and it changed my life. A few months later, I became the apprentice to Elmer Adams–a master woodturner known best for his HUGE mediterranian vase forms. We worked together two days a week for six months, until Elmer decided I was ready to go on my own. He was a wonderful teacher and I am grateful to both of these men for sharing their knowledge with me. They opened new doors in my creativity…