My Creative Process

The process of making these gates is kind of intense compared to nailing together some brown boards and staining them. First, I decide on the design, of course, including whatever hardware is part of it. Sometimes I will make hardware, and have made decorative wood elements too. I go select the wood especially for each gate. The grain of cedar varies radically board to board, so I choose straight and smooth or wild, or just curvy lines, etc. I choose a set of boards that go together, including extra ones. Some of the boards end up cracking or warping in the building process and can only be used in pieces. I burn the boards and do various techniques I've developed to cause many different looks. The burning and abrading is called shou shugi, and helps preserves the cedar even longer than it normally lasts, so more than a quarter of a century.

I build the frame of the gate using cedar 2x4s that have gone through the shou shugi process too. After it is framed and squared and braced, I lay out the boards that will be the front. They have to be arranged and rearranged to get the best look. All the hardware and everything is laid out to make sure of the overall look. Then I use screws where they won't show, and artisan rose head nails where it will show.

Often I have made the hardware to match the idea of the gate. Or I have good suppliers in Ukraine, Israel, Morocco, Estonia, and the U.S. Generally I try to make every gate not only one of a kind, but unlike you will see anywhere else. Hand-making things, or getting hardware from abroad in their traditional styles is part of that. I very often also repurpose, alter, and distress things.

These days I often hand-paint different kinds of wood grain look onto the wood, using a method I've developed. The reason is simply that cedar turns grey in two years outdoors. Even carefully sealed with the various special sealers and stains, they start fading almost immediately, and go downhill. My wood grain look is permanent because it's house paint, which lasts decades.

Finally, I finish all the elements all together on the gate, in order to have a harmonious, esthetic look. I have a backstory for every gate at the outset, so then I make sure at the end that everything is telling that story. For example, the idea is that this gate is a very old farm door that has been well taken care of. Or, this gate was a door in an old west ghost town. Or I found this antique gate in Bombay and imported it. I make all the decisions about how to do things based on the concept.

Sketch for smaller gates of Castle Gate job.