There is a furniture maker/artist from Washington named Bruno Hervieux. (Normandie Woodworks) I met him because of our shared interest in old woodworking machines. I’ve recently been interested in and inspired by his furniture because of his unique use of mixed materials. These include wood, parchment, brass, straw and others. While looking at his work I realized that a banjo is also a piece of mixed media folk art, in this case brass, walnut and goat skin. A side table holds your coffee cup and a banjo makes music. It’s up to us to make them beautiful as well as functional. This banjo has curly walnut from Goby in Portland, pistachio from California orchards and a stained goat skin head.