Though you wouldn’t glean it from the article, a curious case of George School convergence is represented in the September 2011 issue of Coastal Living magazine. There, pictured in a summery breezeway looking out on a deck, is a free-edge walnut bench, designed and made by one George School alum (and current teacher), commissioned by another alum for the home of yet another, which is the subject of the article.

The bench is the work of woodworking and design teacher Carter Sio ’76, who was asked to create the bench by interior designer Marti Sagar ’75 for the Martha’s Vineyard home of Amy Benninson Aronson ’74 and her family. Marti had bought a free-edge walnut board (one with the natural edge of the tree trunk still intact) by the side of the road and suggested the idea to Carter. “I don't work much with free-edge material, but it was a great chance to try out an idea I’d had for a bench,” said Carter. “Although it looks really simple, it’s actually quite hard to maintain the edge appropriately.”

Carter mitered a corner so that the grain seems to spill over the edge, resembling a continuous board. He designed a leg that juts out like the silhouette of a tree trunk and supported the bench on black feet that create a shadow line, giving the impression that the bench is floating.

In addition to the bench that started it all, Carter has made four more “Martha” benches, named after the Martha’s Vineyard location of the original. Marti and her partner, gallery owner Cheryl Hazen, have one at their Solebury, Pennsylvania farm and the other three are at Cheryl’s New York City gallery.

George School’s woodworking and design program is part of the George School Arts Department, which offers twenty arts courses in ten different visual and performing arts forms, with Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate course options.