Salisbury Artisans, rich in history, is now David Bowen’s cabinet shop.
Carbon Neutral: Fifty-three PV panels make our electricity and power our home’s geothermal system. A Steibol-Eltron evacuated tube solar collector heats our shop floor.
“My aesthetic is based on proportion, appropriateness of style, and showing the beauty of wood. My skill set includes custom designs, reproduction, modern, mission, studio/art furniture and architectural woodworking. Namaste” ~ David Bowen
This Artisan’s Biography
David was introduced to woodworking as a child by his Swedish grandfather, Axel Benson, a Boston area builder of fine cottage style homes of the mid 20th century. A home built by Grandfather Axel is featured on the back cover of “Bungalow Colors” by Robert Schweitzer .
David pursued woodworking during and after college with positions in high-end wood shops on both the east and the west coasts.
In the 1970’s, David moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. There he worked on the Federal H.U.D. project restoring the Victorians at Fillmore and Sutter Streets. As site carpenter, David historically restored the millwork on the relocated Victorians. Other San Francisco projects were on Nob Hill and the cottages of the verdant Filbert Steps of Telegraph Hill.
After working trim carpentry and casework jobs in Palo Alto, Mill Valley, Berkeley, Napa, and on a Sonoma vineyard estate, David met and married his wife Priscilla. They settled in Woodacre, CA where David took the position of wood shop foreman for Nutmeg Kitchens in Novato, CA.
In the 1980’s, back home in the the nutmeg state, David established Lakeville Woodworking on Farnam Road. Here David and his wife raised their two children. In 1997 they purchased Salisbury Artisans, an historic wood shop and home on Factory Street.
In 2010 a powerful storm took down a 300 year old white oak tree at the town grove. The town of Salisbury donated the wood to the Salisbury Association. Louis and Elaine Hecht then commissioned David to make a 16-foot long refectory-style meeting table. The table is highly figured with white oak rays and flecks.
The 2014 opening show of the Gallery Arts Guild in Lakeville, CT featured one of a pair of bistro tables inspired by cafe tables David saw in Verona, Italy. It was reviewed as “the very good part” of the show.
Also in 2014, the Sharon Land Trust called upon local artists to create pieces from a pair of iconic fallen twin white oaks trees. David designed and built twin console tables. The well received show “Reflections” was put up at the Tremaine Gallery of The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, CT.
During covid and now post covid, David is being asked for large dining tables. Many new dining tables are made with dramatic live edge slabs Others are beautifullly book-matched two-board tables.
The kiln dried slabs come from our local Berkshire Products where you can browse their collection. The large natural wood slabs are displayed in many buildings laid out in a beautiful mountainside field in Ashley Falls, MA.
Recently David built the circulation desk for the Childrens’ Library of the Scoville Library in Salisbury, CT.
