James Wolf - the multifaceted bamboo master
Meet James, the Bamboo Master, with decades of bamboo experience. He is a RISD trained designer, and has worked intensively with bamboo since 1995, starting up several international bamboo companies and bamboo production for others.
James has extensive experience setting up efficient production lines and is experienced as an entrepreneur, somebody who's created several bamboo brands, and worked with people who own brands where the main product is bamboo.
Together with his wife Lam they own a private bamboo plantation in Vietnam, where they grow solid iron bamboo, (Tam Vong - Thyrsostachys Siamensis). They also have a factory that manufactures his products as well as contract manufacturing for clients around the world.
James’ passions are furniture, architecture, bikes, innovation and product design with bamboo.
He is currently working at a Ibuku Bali, establishing and managing their pre-fabricated house division, and spearheading some very important testing and research and development for the company.
A quote from James for us bamboo people : ‘If you stick with bamboo, one thing it will teach you is patience’. :-)
1. You mentioned that you have been involved in bamboo since 1995 – that is a lot of bamboo experience. How did it all start?
It all started at the 4th International Bamboo Congress in Bali in 1995, right after that I moved to Vietnam to build the first bamboo flooring and bamboo hardwood processing facility in Vietnam. This was a few years before bamboo flooring became available - we were very early, perhaps too early with this material. Being an American bamboo expert in Asia has presented me with immense exposure and opportunity to work with people doing bamboo houses, furniture and other product development.
2. You are a very rare commodity in bamboo - you have a bamboo processing factory; you design and you have a few bamboo companies under your wing. Tell us more about this.
I love design and building, I’m also passionate about sustainability, so designing and making things in bamboo frees me to be creative but it also results in positive environmental effects from my work. I spent decades designing for others, but eventually built my own factory and created my own brands of bamboo products. I started to build stuff that I like, for example: bicycles, furniture and practical product design and along the way learned entrepreneurship as I created companies and sales channels for the various products.
3. Tell us about the sourcing, harvesting and treatment/production methods that the company uses, especially where the factories are in Vietnam.
In order to have a future supply of top-quality bamboo my wife and I planted our own plantation of super high-quality solid Iron Bamboo in Vietnam, a few years later I built us a home in the bamboo.
Although we grow our own, the factory’s requirements are greater, so we also buy standing bamboo from landowners and from bamboo dealers. I stick to only 2 types of bamboo. Both are solid/thick walled and naturally have extremely low vulnerability to bugs because of low starch levels. We water through the dry season, and apply a slow release NPK developed specifically for our bamboo/soil combination. We manage by trimming low branches to encourage vertical growth, we remove any rotten or snapped poles and we also intersperse fast growing trees in our plantation to encourage natural competition between species. This way the bamboo grows faster and straighter – this really works! With these practices we can achieve yields about 15,000 poles per hectare per year, it’s amazing! We only harvest during a 3-month window at the end of the dry season. Treatment is done in a borax/boron solution over a fire from burning factory scraps.
4. Can you share about the type of bamboo you use and the production process of bamboo before it is sent for production.
Our home is in southern Vietnam within the native growing region of the solid timber bamboo known in Vietnamese as Tam Vong. Not only is this species solid (great for furniture) and hard, it is also naturally very low in starch and sugars resulting in almost no bug infestation. This bamboo is so immensely strong and solid that it doesn’t even feel like bamboo in a conventional sense. After harvesting, we straighten the poles before treatment, then we sun dry the poles for 2 to 3 months. Sun drying gives them a beautiful golden color and creates less internal stress than quick drying with heat. The other species is also very tough and thick walled, similar to Indonesian Duri (thorny bamboo or Tre Gai in Vietnamese or Bambusa Blumeana). If we know our production schedule for the next year, we will cut all the products components to the correct diameter and length before treating and drying. This way it dries faster, treats better and becomes easier to handle.
5. Tell us about the community and the artisans, and any special skills required to make your products?
I have a #1 right hand man who’s been working with me for about 19 years, we are the same age, and I cannot even remember all the cool things we have built together! He’s an amazingly talented carpenter and is brilliant with setting up efficient production processes. His wife is our production manager and their children also work in our factory in material management and quality assurance. We all live on the plantation which is about 3km from the factory. We built housing for our workers at the factory, and have cooperated with a charity organization to provide training and employment for those that most benefit, like the deaf and underprivileged. All in all, our skill range is quite broad and beyond just woodworking. It encompasses construction, welding, building our own specialized bamboo processing machines, composite technologies like resin and carbon fiber, merchandising, labeling and compliance to international clients strict requirements, import/export, social responsibility, finishing, carving, rapid prototyping and incorporation of other materials to marry with bamboo.
I have also had some very talented interns work with me over the years, we have conducted some important engineering and testing work that give us some unique knowledge. Testing has taught me that you can assume many things, but you really don’t know until you have applied the scientific method and draw real results.
6. What are the main challenges in bamboo manufacturing and how are you approaching these challenges?
There are so many challenges and after doing this for 30 years the problems I have don’t have to do with bamboo or design, but more to do with business concerns like marketing, logistics and cashflow, things they don’t teach you in design school. The big hurdle with the general public is that they have low expectations with bamboo as a material. That’s what I’m always trying to overcome and to change, so if I can introduce bamboo products that are long lasting, functional and of high quality, then we can change the negative perceptions. It takes great things to make good impressions.
7. What is your favorite all time bamboo building/piece of furniture/designer and why?
Oh that’s a good question… I would say that my high-end boo bikes are my favorite products. First of all, who doesn’t love high end bikes, but clients have such a high opinion of the boo frame that they buy the best components to build up the bike. It’s common spend many thousands of dollars on components to put on a “bamboo frame”, this is because it’s worth matching the level of the components to that of the bike frame. It’s great to see bamboo being so highly appreciated in such an elite category.
8. What makes your work and business different and unique?
My work in bamboo has been a long evolution from material process to architecture, furniture, décor, product design, farming and entrepreneurship, but it’s probably the knowledge of the material and attention to design that give me that special edge. I’m a dreamer but I’m also extremely practical, I’m a fine artist but I want to bring my bamboo work to the masses as well.
9. What would be your advice to those who are enthusiastic and want to make a start in bamboo?
Apply yourself to your passions, think big, spread the word, and work with others to allow bamboo to become a part of life to more people. Bamboo work is never easy, it always throws you new challenges that you were not expecting. Success is getting back on your feet failure after failure.