Everett Noel
Everett Noel grew up in the Sierra foothills immersed in nature. As a child, he constantly made things with his hands, from tools crudely smithed in campfires to shapes carved from scraps of wood with a pocketknife. A self-taught knife-maker, he sold his pieces early on before a scholarship from West Coast Craft gave him a platform to pursue more refined products and larger sculptural works. In his knife-making, his hand is evident throughout, from the local, salvaged hardwoods he sources primarily from his property and carves into elegant handles, to the fastidiously shaped and polished blades. Noel looks to create functional tools that will inspire daily use, so that with age each is invested with years of meaning and value. His inspiration derives from the natural world: the curve of a river, a found branch, a weathered stone.