Made in Everett: Elpis & Wood

Editor’s Note: Originally published November 9, 2017. Republished December 1, 2022.

I'm at the Elpis & Wood workshop on Grand Avenue.

It smells like wood chips and hot tea. Ron Swanson would feel at home here.

Blake Paine, owner of E &W, shows me a long, thick slab of maple with a tarp on it. It's propped against the wall.

"That's black line spalting."

He tells me the fine black marbled color is actually a fungus that grows after the tree dies and begins to decay, a microorganism that consumes sugars in the dead wood. This is what makes the slab so unique.

The beauty of the maple emerges with the end of life as new life springs forth.

"I like that it's rejected wood," Blake says.

Elpis & Wood isn't a mill.

Mills typically pump out uniform, dimensional lumber. 2X4s. 4x8s.

The weird stuff that's too hard for mills to cut, the stuff that can't be used— those pieces are traditionally pulped, chipped, or discarded. Maybe sold to a luthier.

E & W buy these pieces of "reject" lumber and make them into live edge furniture.

This philosophy of making something practical and aesthetically pleasing from leftovers is the guiding ethos behind Elpis & Wood.

Each coffee table, dining table, or console is as unique as the tree it was sourced from. Knots, woodgrain whorls and all.

Elpis & Wood work mostly with local lumber—maple and walnut. Walnut is a darker wood, much sought after by the mom and pop mills that source the trees.

The shop began in 2011. At the time they were one of two or three live edge furniture purveyors on the handmade retail website Etsy.

E & W still do a lot of local work (Blake estimates 75% of their clients are local), but they also ship their pieces across the country. On the day I visit Blake shows me a slab destined for New York City.

They have made tables for Providence hospital, Narrative Coffee, the mayor's office, the Public Works building, and are working on a forthcoming piece for the City of Everett.