THE PEOPLE
For woodworkers Katie Gong and Aleksandra Zee, finding success at their craft is all the sweeter when they do it side by side
Katie Gong and Aleksandra Zee on why woodworking is better together
For many close friends, working side by side would mean getting absolutely no work done at all. Luckily that’s not the case for woodworkers Aleksandra Zee, 30, and Katie Gong, 32.
Working together — and producing their best work while they’re at it — is at the root of the duo’s relationship, which started in 2008 while they were working at Anthropologie in Palo Alto, designing and building the shop’s over-the-top window displays.
“It wasn't really until I left Anthropologie [in 2013] that we became really close,” explains Gong, a second-generation woodworker who studied art and art history at UC Santa Barbara. “Aleksandra had left about a year before me and had started the journey of making a name for herself in the art world. We met for coffee and pastries at Tartine and I just kind of unloaded with my ideas, dreams and fears. I remember her telling me to go for it and that it was doable. Barfy, but doable.”
Soon after, the friends decided to shack up together in a studio on Market and Franklin streets. “It was a pretty hairy basement woodshop with no ventilation,” recalls Zee, a Southern California native with a fine art degree from Azusa Pacific University who credits Gong with teaching her the finer points of woodworking. “But it was so dreamy because it was ours.”
Most recently, the two moved over to Dime Studios, a spacious sawdust-covered space near Oakland’s Lake Merritt, where they each stay busy with an array of commissioned work, sometimes collaborating on one-off projects (including the oft-Instagramed custom walls at Nashville’s Urban Cowboy B&B and a massive table for Hayes Valley boutique Kit and Ace).
“My process is very organic. It all starts with a color scheme,” explains Zee, who specializes in large-scale patterned work utilizing a combination of raw, painted and stained redwood. “I pull the colors and the natural lath that I think will fit, either a whiter hue or pieces that have lots of colorful grain. After I've sorted the pieces I want to use, I just let the piece flow. I have a system of working from the center out, but really that's the only planning I do.”
Gong, who makes everything from liveedge tables and stump stools (which have been scooped up by West Elm) to sleeker moon-phase wall sculptures, also lets the material be her guide. “I like to fit the project to the wood and not the wood to the project,” she says. “I typically look at the materials and think about what is the best use for
the wood and what I’m inspired to make. I also accept custom orders that take me on wood hunts to find different species all over the Bay Area.”
These lumber runs often become tandem trips. “We supply shop together all the time,” says Zee. “If I have to get plywood, Katie will come with me. Of course, guys will come up to us and say, ‘Do you need help with that?’ And we’re like, ‘No, we’re fine, we got it.’ ”
Which brings up an obvious point: Both Gong and Zee are women killing it in an industry that’s filled with men, a fact that can lead to an unfair amount of pressure.
“Woodworking is a male-dominated field 100-percent,” says Zee. “There’s way more love than negativity, but we do get a lot of flak. We always have to work a little bit harder to get respect. If we’re ever doing anything that’s going to be photographed or if we talk about anything we’ve made, we have to make sure we’re doing it exactly by the book or we will get called out for it. It’s a lot of responsibility.”
One way they’re facing off against their critics is to simply work every day to get better at what they’re doing, a process they both feel is only made easier with each other’s help and support.
“We’re non-competitive, and we only encourage each other’s growth, which is amazing,” explains Zee. “We’re always problemsolving together. If one of us is stuck, then the other one will shed some light on the problem. If I’m stumped on something, Katie will say, ‘Oh, just do it this way.’ She’s always teaching me new things.”
As for what’s up next for the talented duo, Gong is working on a soon-to-be-revealed installation at the Old Devil Moon bar in Bernal Heights, while Zee is dreaming of a site-specific installation in a far-flung place, ideally Tokyo.
In the meantime, Gong says the goal is to “just keep making, making, making.” And for these two, making is always better together.
“Woodworking is a male-dominated field 100 percent,” says Zee. “There’s way more love than negativity, but we do get a lot of flack.”