The Work in Progress Page is an opportunity to share the day-to-day evolution of some of the various pieces that I design and construct in my studio. The page will change as new pieces develop, so please visit often.

The current Work in Progress piece is a pair of sliding Shoji Screen Doors for a contemporary Japanese-American home. The doors are used to create a feeling of privacy in a traditional Tatami room.

Traditional Japanese techniques of making shoji include hand-cut mortise and tenon joinery and hand-planed surfaces. The doors are made from an enormous plank of clear white pine, assuring consistent color and grain. The grid-work within the frames, called Kumiko, creates a rhythmic, balanced design. The Kumiko is joined with very precise fitting half-lap joints, cut with a special saw called a dozuki (Japanese back-saw). All Kumiko pieces are unglued, held together by tension alone. They are hand-cut one at a time with a Dozuki saw and fine Japanese chisels. The pine is left unfinished allowing the color of the wood to become richer over time. The high level of craftsmanship and focus that this type of joinery requires is a very rewarding aspect of shoji screen projects.

	The rough-milled pieces of the Shoji Doors. The stacked rectangular pieces will be joined edge to edge, creating wide panels for the 'Hip Boards' at the bottom of the doors. Eventually, the wide panels will be hand surfaced with a traditional Japanese smoothing plane to fit the matching grooves in the frame. The longer pieces will become the stiles and rails or framework for the doors.				The kumiko (gridwork) pieces being assembled. The Kumiko is joined with very precise fitting half-lap joints, cut by hand. No glue is used in their assembly.

	The shoji doors installed, open. View is looking into tatami room.				The doors installed. View from inside tatami room.

	The shoji doors installed into the wooden track traditionally used in Japanese homes.				The Kumiko and frame pieces are completely assembled. Hand-made Japanese paper is attached to the Kumiko with rice glue and can easily be repaired or replaced. Traditionally the paper was replaced at the beginning of the New Year. Its translucent quality softens a room while allowing for privacy. Hand-made papers are available in a range of colors, textures, and patterns.

	These Japanese Sword Steel chisels, made by master blacksmith Chuttaro Imai, show the beautiful folded steel forge welded to a very hard, high carbon tool steel cutting edge. These chisels are used to cut the mortises in the Shoji framework as well as the joinery of the kumiko. The exceptional quality rip-cut dozuki saw is hand-made by the saw maker Juntaro Mitsukawa and is used for much of the joinery including the accurate kumiko joinery.				A very special Japanese hand plane (kanna) used to smooth all pieces of the white pine Shoji Doors, leaving a smooth, vibrant surface. This plane was made in 1999 by master blacksmith Imoto Masao in celebration of being proclaimed, at the age of 90, a Japanese "National Living Treasure". Mr. Masao calls the plane Dai Dogyu, Dai meaning 'big' and Dogyu in this case representing 'water buffalo' and meaning 'from the earth'. This is a very difficult steel to work with and has qualities of being exceptionally hard yet supple, which demonstrates Mr. Masao's incredible skill level, creating a blade combining both qualities.

	Detail view of the Sword Steel chisels showing the wood grain effect of the folded steel and Mr. Imai's signature. The area where the the softer and harder steels are forged together can be seen as lighter and darker grey colors on the chisel's beveled edge. The softer steel provides resiliency to the very hard cutting edge.