Sal Maccarone

Sal Maccarone is an American author, sculptor, designer and kinetic artist. He is best known as a master craftsman, and for his internationally distributed woodworking books such as Tune Up Your Tools, and How to Make $40,000 a Year Woodworking, both published by F & W publications, Betterway Books, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is also known for his woodworking technique articles published both online since 1994, Article. and by the national magazine Popular Woodworking. Article. Articles such as his "Evolution of an Entryway" have also been published in industry specific journals.

He attended San José State University and achieved a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1972. During 1973 and 1974 while enrolled in the Master of Fine Arts Program for sculpture at (SJSU), he studied under professors Sam Richardson, John Battenberg, and Fletcher Benton, all internationally recognized sculptors.

While studying for his master's degree in sculpture Sal became involved in the kinetic sculpture movement of the 1970s. Always using wood as the main media for his sculpture, he also incorporates metal, glass, plastic, and natural stone. His meticulously engineered kinetic sculptures are best described as a combination of fine furniture pieces which contain an impossible bottle type environment that is viewed through glass. The cabinet always remains stationary while the artwork within is kinetic. When turned on, the pieces sequenced with a combination of light and mechanical movement. Video.

He gained national recognition for his furniture, and sculpture in 1977 when he and his work were featured on the KPIX-TV program Evening Magazine. Video. He was the co-founder of Bears in the Wood a small chain of retail stores in the San Francisco Bay Area which served as the showrooms for furniture that he both designed and built. The stores also sold Teddy bears which were imported from around the world. The merchandise was displayed within an environment which featured a three-story waterfall, and a full scale log cabin. These were the first stores in the country to market "just" Teddy Bears. The airing of that TV special set off a national Teddy Bear store frenzy in the United States from coast to coast which began in 1976, and continues until the present.

In 1979 his work was featured in the Fine Woodworking "Design Book Two" printed by the Taunton Press. This hardcover book featured photographs of the best work in wood by selected craftsmen from across the United States, and Canada.

During 1985 Sal was commissioned by the "California State Mining and Mineral Association" to build a working scale model of a California Gold Rush era "Gold Stamp Mill". The model currently resides at the California State Mining and Mineral Museum in Mariposa, California.

In 1990 his woodwork, and sculpture at the Tenaya Lodge in Yosemite was featured first in the Fresno Bee newspaper, and then on the KGPE CBS TV47 program, Eye on the Valley. Video. The program was filmed at Sal's studio in Mariposa, California in March 1990.

In early 1990 Maccarone began furniture design, and construction for the Chateau du Sureau in Oakhurst, California. Over a period of eighteen months he worked very closely with the hotel owner to ultimately produce eighty different period pieces of furniture, and the castle's Honduras mahogany doors. During the process Sal perfected the distressing process which visually ages the woodwork. Part of that unique process involved using a small gauge shotgun. By glancing the shot at an angle, he discovered that it was possible to simulate worm holes in the faces of the wooden doors.