Looking Back at the ‘Master Craftsman’ Columns From 2024

Inside most Behind The Hedges magazines, our Master Craftsman column highlights people who help make our house a home. Whether in Dan’s Papers, the Long Island Press or in Behind The Hedges Palm Beach, they use their skills to refine the home, whether it’s creating an item we use or enjoy every day, like Roger Levin, who practicies woodturning (not just woodwork), Brooklyn-based Joseph Shakúff who specializes in designing artistic lighting fixtures and Jason and Samantha Nagorski of R.E.N. Design Company in Wading River, who create unique custom furniture and home accessories for an eclectic clientele.

Master Craftsman: Cris Mirabella and the Perfect First Chord

It takes Cris Mirabella about a year to make a guitar. The process is often a collaborative one, particularly when he’s creating an instrument for a working musician. The future owner might help Mirabella select the slabs of European maple, spruce or macassar ebony that will ultimately become the guitar’s neck and body. Or they might ask for subtle adjustments to, say, the voicing of the upper midrange frequencies. Virtuoso jazz guitarists might even be looking for a specific yet elusive “feel” as their fingers dance up and down the fretboard.

Levin, above, perfecting his craft, keeps a supply of wood drying on hand that he will sculpt into works of fine art.Anni Levin/@creating_anni

Master Craftsman: Roger Levin and the Art of Woodturning

Carpentry is everywhere in homes, from bookshelves to moldings, fireplaces to tables and chairs. We live in a wood world where trees are routinely transformed into furnishings around us. But if carving and cutting wood are commonly practiced crafts, Roger Levin has, if not discovered, recently begun a different way of working with wood.

James Ding: All You Need Is Love (and Art)

Southampton sculptor James Ding strives to create work that expresses the dynamic and transformative power of love.

The Undeniable Beauty of Bonsai

Chris Hayes, bonsai, Master Craftsman — Chris Hayes at work in his greenhouse.Bob Giglione

Chris Hayes is the proud owner and caretaker of about 150 bonsai plants at his home, mostly outdoors with a few tropical trees indoors. He is a practitioner of the craft of bonsai — part art, part nature and pleasure.

Spreading Light, Scent and Shinnecock Culture

Shane Weeks, Master Craftsman, Shinnecock — Shane Weeks has long been a craftsman, but his latest venture is making candles.Bob Giglione

Shane Weeks makes candles designed to capture a little bit of the scent, and maybe even the spirit, of the Shinnecock Nation. They get their names from the land and come with cards explaining the role the plants they contain play in Shinnecock culture.

Master Craftsman: Joseph Sidof, Lighting Up Homes

While most people use light to see other objects, Brooklyn-based Shakúff specializes in designing artistic lighting fixtures that, themselves, are worth looking at.

Master Craftsman: Randy Steyert on Decking Out the Hamptons

South Fork Decking, Hamptons,Randy Steyert — Randy Steyert of South Fork Decking enjoys one of his finished works.Courtesy of South Fork Decking

One South Fork carpenter specializes in replacing decks, designing, selecting materials, doing renderings and plans, getting permits and building them out with his crew.

Master Craftsman: Isabella Rupp and a Journey Reflected in Glass

The artist surrounded by several of her smaller sized works in her North
Sea studio in Southampton.Bob Giglione

Harnessing the power of intense heat and focused fire, Southampton artist Isabella Rupp, this month’s Master Craftsman, paints with glass.

Master Craftsman: ‘Schlepping’ Means Business for Hayley Di Rico

Sea Schleps, Master Craftsman, artist — Hayley Di Rico of New Hyde Park transformed her sea ‘schlepping’ hobby into a career by creating masterful home accessories with materials she picks up along the shore.Bob Giglione

Most people collect seashells and sea glass from the beach and aren’t sure what to do with them, so they end up either back on the shore or in a jar sitting in the house. But, Hayley Di Rico isn’t most people.