Learning by doing

Sam Maloof never trained as a woodworker. Asked, late in life, how he had learned, he answered simply: "I learned just by doing it."

Maloof (1916–2009) worked in Alta Loma, California, now part of Rancho Cucamonga. He and his wife, Alfreda, his partner in the business, began with a stucco house of about 800 square feet. Between 1951 and 2000 he extended and rebuilt it, room by room, into a rambling home and workshop.

What came out of that workshop was furniture with soft, flowing lines, and above all his rocking chairs, on long, sculpted runners. Jimmy Carter owned one. Ronald Reagan used one in the White House. In 1985 Maloof received a MacArthur Fellowship, the first craft artist ever given one.

Word of mouth

For all that, the way he worked stayed small and personal. "I don't have brochures, business cards or anything," he said in 2002, "and it's just all word of mouth."

The house is now kept by the Sam and Alfreda Maloof Foundation for Arts and Crafts, open for tours and exhibitions, and furniture is still made in the workshop.