Furniture maker William Stranger opens studio, launches sale William Stranger: Tube Table During William Stranger's studio sale March 23 and 24, the English walnut Tube Table will be on sale for $1,500, which is 50% off its original price. One edge is inscribed with lyrics from a Cat Power song: "The moon is not only beautiful, it is so far away." Frank Noack /March 15, 2013 By David A. Keeps March 15, 2013, 5:16 p.m. Noted Pasadena furniture maker William Stranger will open his studio March 23 and 24 and offer his current inventory at half-off the retail price. "It's nice to have all the pieces displayed in the place where they were built without having to find a gallery," Stranger said. The corrugated metal building where he works is an old Navy facility where torpedoes were tested. It's a great looking space and it's filled with tree slabs, and sometimes people fall in love with a piece of wood and get inspired to order a new piece. For the past 15 years, Stranger's inspiration has been salvaged and recycled wood. Among the pieces on sale: the I Table, which the craftsman built for the "Forces of Nature" exhibition at the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden featuring furniture and sculpture made from trees felled in a severe 2011 windstorm. Stranger used wood from a paulownia tree, a native of Asia used in Japan to make tansu cabinetry, to create the I Table, which he's reducing to $1,500. "I chose a thin slab, removed the bark, flattened and sanded the board, then finished it with a linseed oil mix," Stranger said. To contrast the organic form of the top, I fabricated a base from a piece of scrap I-beam discarded by a contractor neighbor. Stranger has other designs that integrate reclaimed metal as well as burnt trees. For each piece, he looks for ways to personalize them. My wife gave me a set of punches that have letters of the alphabet on a piece of steel. I bang them with a hammer, and they make impression in the wood," he said. Many of them are political proclamations or lyrics from songs. "It's my way of documenting what I was feeling when I made each piece," Stranger said. The arboretum table is imprinted with: "In the path of a lightning bolt." During the sale, the works on display will cost between $700 and $2,700. Stranger also will be making new pieces, including vases from $150 and salvaged wood mirrors from $350. The studio sale is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 23 and 24 at 3202 E. Foothill Blvd #6h, Pasadena; (626) 840 4286; williamstranger.net.