Julie Godfrey
Shelburn Falls, Massachusetts
Weaving Peace
Claro Walnut & Tineo Rosewood
Interior – White Oak
Price: $18,500
Julie Godfrey
Julie is a furniture maker in Shelburn Falls, Massachusetts. A graduate of the College of the Redwoods' Fine Woodworking Program, she did an informal apprenticeship with master marquetarian Silas Kopf over a ten-year period while pursuing her own work. More recently, Julie wrote the section on marquetry in James Krenov's book, With Wakened Hands. She also serves as contributor and consultant to Fine Woodworking magazine for marquetry and veneering questions.
“The great challenge of marquetry furniture is to see with an essentially contemplative sensibility. A successful design tries to capture the movement in every act of nature. Even the color is spreading out, pushing in, advancing or retreating, for all that we see has been defined by movement. By understanding the mysteries of the opening of a flower, the subtle and miraculous workings of breath, the aerodynamics of a bird’s wing, will the true movement and life come through in the work. I’ve learned not to worry so much about the rules of drawing, only the laws of nature which give us the rules. As Nicolaides has said, “There is no real necessity for remaining visually truthful or even structurally truthful in relation to the moment. For, there is always a bigger truth undiscovered, unsaid, uncharted until you meet it.”
Julie Godfrey
“Peace Weaving”
As a Jewish woman married to an Irishman, I created this cabinet to represent the interweaving of two traditions. The joining of the Celtic and Jewish imagery was quite personal, and something that I know deep in my heart. I began by weaving Celtic knotwork in the marquetry, and it immediately began to grow with life under my pencil, blossoming with flowers, fruit and creatures that brought forward the knotwork’s essential meaning of the continuity of life. Both Celtic and Jewish traditions celebrate the beauty of nature and interconnectedness of all things.
As my mother and I looked at the drawing that had emerged, we saw the woven roof of a sukkah, a temporary outdoor shelter that’s built to celebrate the Jewish holiday Sukkot. It is constructed always with an open roof woven with plants and fruits of the harvest. For this reason, the first Hebrew blessing at the top of the upper medallion is “Uf'ros Aleynu Sukkat Sh'lomecha,” or translated, “Spread over us a shelter of peace” (from the “Hashkiveynu” prayer recited during Sukkot.) Outside in the sukkah we are truly aware of our fragility in our exposure to the power of nature. Rabbi Shefa Gold teaches us to name the fears that surround us....perhaps the fear of the dark, the unknown, or the enemy within or without. The path to freedom from fear is in attuning ourselves to the shelter of peace and wholeness spread over the whole of life.
The second blessing, at the bottom of the upper medallion is the “Shema Yisrael,” the central prayer of the Jewish identity. “Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad.” It states essentially that there is nothing but G-d, and that all of creation is one. My hope is that the knotwork and the sukkah will remind us at a glance that all of life is interconnected, and it is my feeling that this awareness is truly our path to peace.