Born in the Philippines and now based in Kerhonkson, nestled between New York's Shawangunk Ridge and Catskill Mountains, Abigail Castañeda came to woodworking through a desire to furnish her own home. What began as a practical pursuit soon evolved into a deeper exploration of material, process and place. After learning production lathe work at a furniture and tabletop company, she established her own studio, turning her attention to the raw beauty of the tree itself – its grain, its history and the record of time held within the wood.
The trees Abigail works with arrive as whole logs, salvaged from local forests and carefully prepared according to the character of each individual piece. Bowls and vessels are turned on the lathe before undergoing an unexpected stage of transformation. Through high-temperature steaming, the wood's cellular structure is relaxed and stabilized, a process rooted in traditional boatbuilding and bentwood furniture making. Once cured, each object is finished by hand with successive applications of natural oils, waxes and botanical compounds.
What distinguishes Abigail’s work is its remarkable surface. Using mineral solutions and earth-derived materials mixed in the studio, she encourages subtle chemical reactions within the wood itself, revealing colours and textures hidden beneath the grain. The results can resemble weathered stone, graphite brushed with light, or ancient marble softened by age. Often, the material no longer reads immediately as wood, but as something elemental and enduring.
Each vessel retains the memory of the tree from which it came. Shaped by hand and transformed through process, these pieces bring a fragment of the forest indoors, carrying with them a sense of landscape, time and permanence.
Discover Abigail Castañeda's work at the WLLW Shop.
Born in the Philippines and now based in Kerhonkson, nestled between New York's Shawangunk Ridge and Catskill Mountains, Abigail Castañeda came to woodworking through a desire to furnish her own home. What began as a practical pursuit soon evolved into a deeper exploration of material, process and place. After learning production lathe work at a furniture and tabletop company, she established her o...
