James Krenov ( October 31, 1920 – September 9, 2009 ) was a woodworker and studio furnituremaker.

Jim Krenov was born on October 31, 1920, in the village of Uelen, Siberia, the only child of Dimitri and Julia Krenov.

In 1976, Krenov ’ s first book, “ A Cabinetmaker ’ s Notebook ” was published.

In 1981, Krenov was invited to start the Fine Woodworking Program at the College of the Redwoods in Fort Bragg, California.

Krenov was presented with The Furniture Society's Award of Distinction in 2001.

Once established as a master woodworker, Krenov also began sharing his expertise.

A friend in Sweden got Krenov a job building wooden architectural models for a restaurant designer ; later Krenov got himself a spot at the Stockholm design school run by Carl Malmsten, considered the father of Scandinavian furniture design.

Krenov taught and lectured about his approach to woodworking at places such as the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, Boston University, UC Santa Cruz, Graz, Austria, as a Fulbright guest at New Zealand ’ s Craft Council, Takayama, Japan, and Anderson Ranch, Colorado.

* A transcript of an interview with Krenov, stored at the Smithsonian Institution

Although he made a living of his craft, Krenov referred to his attitude towards his work as that of an amateur, feeling that the competitive attitude of a professional causes one to compromise one's values as a craftsman.

Krenov felt that details such as uniformly rounded edges, perfectly flat surfaces, and sharp corners remove the personal touch from a piece of furniture.

As a young man during World War II, Krenov served as a Russian interpreter for the military when Russian ships docked in Seattle.

They produce sleep ," Krenov said.

Always a writer, Krenov published several articles and a novel chronicling these travels.

" Krenov really helped re-create an interest in fine woodworking that had largely died out by the 1950s ," says Frank Ramsay, president of the Bay Area Woodworkers Association, " Such a change from the ' make a box, cover it with plywood and paint it ' era of the 1960s.

" Over time, Krenov received numerous requests to document his design philosophy in book format.

" I traveled all over the world to talk about my work ," Krenov said.

Krenov died in Fort Bragg, California on September 9, 2009.

Krenov is revered by many craftsmen for his inspiration to bring into one's work simplicity, harmony and above all, a love of wood.

" Composing, explained Krenov, is reacting to the wood, a continual re-evaluation and improvisation open to wherever the wood takes the composer.

In his cabinets and other pieces, Krenov paid careful attention to variations in woodgrain and color in his search for " harmony " in a piece.

Although Krenov believed machinery has its place in the shop, ( namely to efficiently complete the relatively grueling and crude early stages of stock removal and thicknessing ) he felt an over-dependence on power tools removes the " fingerprints " left on the finished piece that only handwork can leave, and alienates the craftsman from his work.

Krenov criticized the trend in woodworking schools toward the early use of power tools, instead of building a foundation of hand skills.

This desire, I went on, growing voluble as my conviction was aroused, had mounted at such a rate recently that I now found its realization necessary not only to my physical but also to my spiritual wellbeing.

It was certain now that Jess was in the house, but also, presumably, was Stacey Black.

But it also made him conspicuous to the enemy, if it was the enemy, and he hadn't been spotted already.

He was asking had it been she who left the love note in his sheets ( she also served as maid ) when he saw the Grafin followed by a stately blond girl approaching his table.

This was also a corpse -- a male, judging from the coral arm bands, the tribal scars still discernible on the maggoty face, the painted bone of the warrior caste which still pierced the septum of the rotting nose.

His superiors had also preached this, saying it was the way for eternal honor.

Charles, also fifteen, was tall and skinny, scraggly, with straight black hair like an Indian's and sharp brown eyes.

Although New Orleans was not to learn of it for a spell, she also was a sadist, a nymphomaniac and unobtrusively mad -- the perpetrator of some of the worst crimes against humanity ever committed on American soil.

There was also a dog, a dingo dog.

There was also a long wooden spear and a woomera, a spear-throwing device which gives the spear an enormous velocity and high accuracy.

There was also a boomerang, elaborately carved.

It was also subtly familiar, for it was the odor of the human body, but multiplied innumerable times because of the fact that the aborigines never bathed.

It was to provide a safe and spacious crossing for these caravans, and also to make a pleasance for the city, that Shah Abbas 2, in about 1657 built, of sun-baked brick, tile, and stone, the present bridge.

There was also a lesson, one that has served ever since to keep Americans, in their conflicts with one another, from turning from the ballot to the bullet.

Joseph Jastrow, the younger son of the distinguished rabbi, Marcus Jastrow, was a friendly, round-faced fellow with a little mustache, whose field was psychology, and who was also a punster and a jolly tease.

And just as `` Laurie '' Lawrence was first attracted to bright Jo March, who found him immature by her high standards, and then had to content himself with her younger sister Amy, so Joe Jastrow, who had also been writing Henrietta before he came to Johns Hopkins, had to content himself with her younger sister, pretty Rachel.

she also went to Washington and appealed to Senator George William Norris of Nebraska, the Fighting Liberal, from whose office a sympathetic but cautious harrumphing was heard.

The Indians who came aboard ship to collect the mail also interested her greatly, even if she was suitably shocked, according to the customs of the society in which she had been reared, to find them `` naked, except a piece of cotton cloth wrapped around their middle ''.

He also disliked Runyon, for no good reason other than the fact that the Demon's talent was so marked as to put him well beyond the Hetman's say-so or his supervision.