“I’ve been a professional woodworker for almost 25 years, and I’ve done all sorts of different things,” says Andy Thorp, the craftsman who hand-made all of the serving boards and end grain cutting boards we used in our “Boards: Beyond the Cheese” feature. He began his custom board business, Geometric Forest, about four years ago.
Photographed by Kristen Boehm
Thorp grew up in Whatcom County, near Ferndale. His custom woodworking career has primarily focused on cabinetry, with explorations into furniture building, timber framing, millwork, and even some time at a metal shop. The bottom line is: Thorp loves “making stuff,” and would be happy as a clam in any environment where he could “take things apart to see how [they] work,” and put them back together again.
“I really enjoy figuring out different patterns, seeing things in nature or in buildings… you never know where you’re going to see a pattern or shape that inspires you,” he says. These patterns make their way into his work, where they manifest as carefully crafted designs. Each stripe and dot is made from different pieces of wood, some domestic and some tropical, combined in Thorp’s Bellingham workshop. Designs vary from precise to abstract, and the boards range in size and shape from tiny to huge, square to round, and symmetrical to organic.
The career shift into boards came about as a “happy accident” when Thorp was looking for ways to utilize wood scraps, and now allows him to combine his skills, vintage and modern equipment, and woods from all over the world to express his own creative vision.
“I really enjoy doing this; I have fun,” he says. “I go to work every day ‘cause I like it.”
You can find the Geometric Forest booth every Saturday during the Bellingham Farmers Market; it’s usually manned by Thorp himself, who can give you tips on how to care for your boards (he also makes and sells his own food-safe wood wax). We loved using Geometric Forest boards to plate and serve our boards, and we know you will, too!
Bellingham, geometricforest.com
