- Based
- Black Mountain, North Carolina
- Craft
- Wood, brass, and ketubah art
Windthrow is the Judaica studio of artist and woodworker Eddie Aaronson, who makes challah boards, mezuzahs, Shabbat candlesticks, and ketubot in the mountains of Western North Carolina. He especially loves designing with walnut and brass, a dark wood and a soft metal.
Eddie studied at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, where he first experimented with lettering on wood, then moved to Asheville and founded Windthrow in 2013. For three years he built ladder-back and more contemporary chairs in Brian Boggs's workshop, learning to sharpen and use fine hand tools and to run massive pre-war machines with precision. Early on, Windthrow meant hand-lettered, hand-painted ketubot; in 2018 he put his full effort into the studio and added wooden Judaica.
He describes his designs as rooted in Appalachian culture with a mid-century modern streak. Eddie runs the business from a workshop in Black Mountain with his wife and partner, Becca B. Aaronson, who handles operations and works with couples on their ketubah text, alongside a small team of local artisans. The name refers to trees swayed and sometimes uprooted by strong winds, a nod to the push and pull of failure and growth in creative work.
Good to know
- TrainingBuilt chairs for three years at Brian Boggs's Asheville workshop
- Museum shopsCarried by the Skirball Cultural Center's museum store
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