No Ordinary Table

In the center of the dining room at Oro Fino Lodge, sits a large, rugged wooden table. There’s a conversation taking place between the rich, dark, walnut surface and the gorgeous golden logs that make up the surrounding walls. Their curved edges mirror one another. In every grain of wood, there is a whisper of an old story. The entire room seems to beckon; it was built to inspire and celebrate the simple pleasure of sharing good food in good company. It is no ordinary table.

“I put a piece of my soul into that table,” says Anna Baker, the local woodworker, and artist who dreamed, designed, and crafted this one of a kind piece. Anna, while working to complete the table in time for the holidays, does not have a single hap-hazard bone in her body. She is well acquainted with her materials and takes every element of the work at hand into careful consideration. Anna has a relationship with wood - she seeks to understand all it has to offer and has chosen to embrace its every nuance as her life’s work. “Building pieces that will long outlast me feels important to me,” Anna explains

So, it was with this philosophy and intentionality that Anna entered into her work each day for three straight months to transform a collection of incredible materials, locally sourced and chock-full of history, into a stunning masterpiece. The result? An exquisite gathering place where friends and family will pull up their chairs and share in the delights of a good meal and meaningful connection, time and time again. 

First stop along the path was the Montana Reclaimed Lumber shop where Anna counts on her friend and mentor, Eric Nellis to hand-select the most choice pieces of wood available for her projects. “Because of our deep and long-standing friendship, he really does go out of his way to help me find the best of the best wood to work with,” Anna explains with a grateful tone. “You just can’t find wood of that quality anymore,” she says, “Walnut trees have a much shorter life cycle now so they aren’t given the time to develop all the characteristics that old growth trees have and the treatment process of lumber is so different, there’s a lot that gets lost in that process.” 

“I think about all the weather this wood has seen, all the care that’s gone into hand-chopping this massive walnut tree down because it was done before chainsaws came to be. I think of someone before me carefully carving and joining and constructing this all by hand. And, in a way, I feel like it’s my turn to work with this same wood in a way that honors that story, honors everything these pieces of wood have seen and all the people who’ve been a part of that story,” Anna explains.

Years ago, Eric and Anna became friends and Eric mentored Anna helping her to develop her woodworking skills, particularly in the realm of tables and doors. “I love building tables and doors because they are such vital pieces of our everyday lives. We eat together, laugh together, gather around our tables and we really end up interacting with those pieces of furniture in such wonderful ways. And, with doors, even more so. A beautifully built door is a symbol of return or departure - it’s the actual piece of wood that separates our inner world from the larger outer one. Just think of what happens the moment you step through a door. A big shift takes place,” Anna says.

Anna’s main collaborator in the design and building process was Scott Walter, perhaps best known throughout the area for his incredibly intricate hand-made wooden toys. He has a deep understanding of the mathematics and engineering side of things which Anna says was crucial to the success of the project. And, it is Scott who is responsible for sourcing a huge, extremely rare, segment of solid cast iron that once served a vital role in a traditional limestone kiln. This piece alone weighs hundreds of pounds and forms the connecting trestle at the base of the table. The dark rustic iron rainbow provides structure and stability as well as a pleasing compliment to the rich hue of the walnut and really accentuates the live edge style of the wooden slab. “This is one of the things that makes this piece a once-in-a-lifetime piece. Both the metal and the wood are extremely rare. I just don’t know if you could find anything like that kiln ring anymore- there just aren’t that many of them around,” Anna says.

Although Scott and Eric played major roles in bringing this vision to life, many other friends and community members showed up on the scene time and time again to help loan tools, lift huge and heavy pieces and facilitate the storage and transfer of all of the moving parts. “I underestimated the amount of work this project would require. It was A LOT. I couldn’t have done it without all the help of my friends and collaborators,” Anna explains.

After months of sawing and milling and joining and sanding the table stood sturdy and upright. Gone were the barn life days of wind and rain and the echoing voices of farmers and horses. Gone were the days of biding time in the piles of a lumber yard. Now, there was Anna. Now there was her voice, her careful attention, her respect. In the final stretch, this woman appeared at the shop door in her tattered leather tool belt, hot coffee in hand. She poured linseed oil into her tired palms and rubbed them together. She breathed deeply and carefully massaged the oil into the dry, raw surface of the wise old walnut tree, the heat of her hands opening the pores of the wood so it could drink it in. It took ten coats, more than Anna had ever put on anything. After each new cycle of coating and curing, a more true and beautiful version of the surface emerged. “This is always the moment I become ‘the woodworker’,” Anna says. “It’s like opening a present. It never gets old. It surprises me every single time.” 

Anna Baker fell in love with woodworking when she took her first carpentry class in high school. She has spent decades learning all she can about what it means to work with wood. She’s driven excavators, helped build houses, apprenticed under other skilled woodworkers, and ventured into her own business of creating custom pieces for her clients. She co-teaches beginner women’s carpentry classes through the Red Ants Pants Foundation in order to cultivate a strong female community and provide her students with basic skills and understanding in hopes they’ll discover their own passion and creative genius. If you are interested in working with Anna, please contact redtailwoodworks@gmail.com