Jeff Soderbergh on Sustainable Craftsmanship, Creative Inspiration, and Community

Jeff Soderbergh believes there is already enough organic material in existence to make whatever art or objects we could possibly want. The sustainable artist and craftsman has built his career around a penchant for sourcing salvaged stone, metal, and timber. Architects and designers seek him out for his custom solutions to almost any creative challenge, and through these partnerships, Soderbergh has fostered a rich and diverse community. Lately, he divides his time between his year-round studio/showroom and gallery in Rhode Island and his seasonal gallery (pictured above) on Cape Cod, each devoted to both his own designs and to exhibiting the work of fellow makers who share his sustainability ethos. Occasionally, he grabs time to take a surf vacation with his wife and sons—and to rest and reset his artist’s eye.

1. The last thing I made and loved…is a very, very hefty console table made from twelve-inch-by-twelve-inch beams from the 1700s.

2. The best piece of advice I ever received…is don’t follow trends; they are always moving and feel dated. Instead, be
authentic, and your audience will respond to you and your point of view.

3. I have a collection of…everything! I’m a professional hoarder with over a thousand beams, dozens of trees, hundreds of slabs, frames of old ships, pieces of the Coney Island boardwalk and the Berlin Wall, Victorian sleighs, barrels of nails from the 1800s, slate farm sinks, doorknobs, the keel of the Coronet [ed. an 1885 schooner], bricks, barn doors, etc.

4. When I travel, I always bring…a wetsuit and my tape measure.

5. The last thing I bought and loved…is a pair of turn-of-the-century leather club chairs.

6. The last album I bought…is Steely Dan’s Can’t Buy a Thrill from 1972 on vinyl. The first track will transport you somewhere in time if you turn it up.

7. In my fridge you’ll always find…too many condiments, overripe avocados, and a single Mexican beer.

8. The best gifts I’ve received…are a surf trip to Peru and a 1910 thirty-six-inch band saw.

9. The best gift I’ve given…my sons and I restored a former ranch truck—a 1962 Ford F100—for my wife’s fiftieth and managed to keep it a secret in my barn for almost three years until we unveiled it.

10. A place that means a lot to me…is Jamestown, Rhode Island, where I grew up searching for the lost pirate treasure of Captain Kidd in its hidden nooks and crannies. I may have found some….

11. In another life I would have been…a landscape designer.

12. When I need inspiration I…think of my amazing wife, Natasha, and my boys, and then I put on Led Zeppelin’s “When the Levee Breaks” and let it happen.

Jeff Soderbergh Sustainable Furnishings & Fine Art, Portsmouth, R.I., Wellfleet, Mass., jeffsoderbergh.com