THE SPIRIT MOVES HIM SAM MALOOF, FELLOW CRAFTSMEN PROFILED IN PBS DOCUMENTARY.

Byline: Nancy Dillon

Staff Writer

Sam Maloof ran his weathered forefinger up the sculpted edge of the Fiddleback Maple dining chair and followed the hard line across the oiled back and down the buttery soft arm.

At 91, the master furniture maker is as busy as ever turning out handcrafted chairs, rockers and tables. He still toils in his workshop at the foot of the San Bernardino mountains six days a week, from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., filling a backlog of orders from all over the world.

The current wait list for his $25,000 signature rocking chair is four years. His walnut baby cradle, a popular design that swings gracefully with a light touch, sells for $50,000 and is the one item promised for delivery within nine months.

"I still put everything together myself, and then the fellows shape and sand," Maloof said, referring to the three apprentices who will inherit his business. "I was offered $22 million for the rights to my designs in the '60s, but I said no. I wasn't that anxious to have my things mass- produced in a factory. I want them to be the way I make them. ... My hands are my tools."

Maloof is one of 20 craft artists featured in the new three-part PBS documentary series "Craft in America," which premieres Wednesday at 8 p.m.

Promotional materials for the series describe him as a "patriarch" of the American crafts movement. He's too humble to admit it, but he takes this role very seriously.

Last Monday, Maloof woke up early to give a keynote speech to 300 people gathered by the San Bernardino Department of Aging and Adult Services. He then returned to his workshop at the Sam and Alfreda Maloof Foundation (named for his late wife, Alfreda, who died in 1998) and drew a pencil sketch for a brand-new design: an adjustable-height table with a cross-shaped top for his new wife, Beverly Wingate Maloof.

Wearing jeans, a gray tunic and dark-framed glasses, Maloof hurried outside when he heard a crane was about to lower a giant, 14-ton boulder onto a special spot prepared near a walkway. The rock had been excavated during construction of an adjacent building that soon will act as the foundation's Education Center.

"It's so beautiful. I had to save it. It looks like a petrified tree," he said just moments before walking up to the precariously suspended rock and posing for a photo in which he mock-holds it aloft.

"Look here on the side. It looks like a bear's face," he said, pointing to the rock's southern profile. Indeed, the ridged surface did look like a bear's face -- but only with Maloof's trained eye as a guide.

Maloof explained that sometimes he just stares at a piece of wood until a mental picture, something like the bear, emerges.

"I let the wood guide me," he said. "If a client comes in with a drawing and says this is what I want you to make, I say 'Sorry. You can tell me how big you want something or whether you want the back soft or hard, but I need to have a free hand.'

"This may sound brash, but I've never made something that someone else has designed," said Maloof, the seventh of nine children born to Lebanese immigrants who settled in Chino.

The self-taught master, deemed a "living treasure" by the California legislature, said his first foray into woodworking was a breadboard he made at age 10 so that his mother could retrieve flat Arab bread from the oven without burning herself.

"I've never known anyone who's worked harder and stayed more true to his vision," said Mike Johnson, 48, Maloof's apprentice since 1981.

A MacArthur Fellow with furniture in the White House Collection of Arts and Crafts, Maloof said he considers George Nakashima one of the "stalwarts" of the handcrafted furniture business.

Nakashima, who died in 1990, is another subject of the PBS "Craft" series and celebrated as an artist whose craft intersected with culture. He perfected his woodworking skills while detained in a Japanese internment camp during World War II and dedicated much of his Pennsylvania-based work to world peace.

Nakashima's large-scale wood tables with smooth tops, unfinished natural edges and architectural bases are serious collector's items now. His redwood and madrona burl "Arlyn Table" sold for $822,400 at Sotheby's last December.

"There's a spirit in trees that's very deep. And in order to produce a fine piece of furniture, the spirit of the tree lives on," he says in archival footage used in the series.

The mission of "Craft in America," according to series creator Carol Sauvion, is to document the history and cultural impact of American crafts through the three-part PBS series, a dedicated Web site (www.craftinamerica.org) and a traveling exhibit that's scheduled to visit San Diego's Mingei International Museum starting Oct. 20 and the Palm Springs Art Museum starting Feb. 18.

"Craft involves a mastery of technique, an instinct for design and a real passion -- a need to work with your hands," Sauvion, who owns the Freehand gallery on West Thirrd Street in West Hollywood, said. "It's about kinesthetic intelligence, and it's something that's disappearing from our world."

Other craft artists featured in the series include Mary Jackson, a South Carolina-based basket maker working in a tradition brought by West African slaves, and Jan Yager, a master jeweler living in Philadelphia who uses urban cast-offs, such as crack vials, in her designs.

Maloof is the oldest of the living artists in the series, and he said he has no plans to slow his pace of finishing one handcrafted piece each week.

Walking through his workshop, he picked up several short planks he recently cut with his massive, intimidating band saw. The "green" planks will take six months to a year to dry before they're ready for shaping. He lined the planks up based on grain, discarded one that was too thin and decided they would make a nice table top.

"I'll keep doing this until I kick the bucket," Maloof, who looks a decade younger than his actual age, said with a laugh. "I love it too much to walk away from it."

Nancy Dillon, [phone]

nancy.dillon(at)dailynews.com

SAM AND ALFREDA MALOOF FOUNDATION AND LIVING MUSEUM

What: Walk through the hand-made wood home that Maloof shared with his late wife and partner of 50 years, Alfreda. The labyrinthine structure, filled with Maloof's sculptural furniture, whimsical door latches and his famous spiral staircase, received historic status when it was moved three miles to its current Alta Loma location to make way for a freeway.

Where: 5131 Carnelian St., Alta Loma.

Hours: Noon to 4 p.m. Thursdays and Saturdays. Tours start at 1, 2 and 3 p.m. (Closed May 31.)

Tickets: $10 for adults, $8 for seniors, $5 for students. The museum is unable to accommodate children younger than 14.

Information: [phone] or info(at)malooffoundation.org.

CRAFT IN AMERICA

What: Presented in three parts -- Memory, Landscape and Community -- this high-definition documentary series explores the history and cultural impact of American crafts.

Where: KCET.

When: All three parts will run consecutively at 8, 9 and 10 p.m. Wednesday.

CAPTION(S):

7 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) He ROCKS

At 91, Sam Maloof is still making furniture with style

(2 -- color) Sam Maloof, 91, sits in one his handcrafted rocking chairs. The current waiting list for his $25,000 signature rocker is four years.

(3 -- color) George Nakashima's "Arlyn Table" sold for $822,400.

(4 -- color) A handcrafted door lock inside Maloof's Rancho Cucamonga home.

(5 -- 7 -- color) Tools rest on an unfinished chair in Maloof's studio, right. Above right, Maloof stands by a spiral staircase that he made for his home. Above, a handcrafted Maloof menorah.

Jeff Malet/Staff Photographer