Meet Sienna George of Long Beach, CA

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sienna George.

Hi Sienna, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I was raised by two rock and roll set designers in Long Beach, CA. I grew up watching them build stages and sets for Neil Diamond, Barbara Streisand, Disneyland, and more. I grew up playing piano, guitar, and cello, then began playing bass and building instruments for fun at age 14. I built cigar box guitars, took apart old instruments, which led me at age 17 to a luthier apprenticeship at Los Angeles Bass Works. There, I was repairing high quality antique upright basses. While performing with Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra as a teenager, I had a bass solo that required a wooden mute. I could not find one easily online, so my dad taught me how to make them myself. I made a few, then moved to NYC for my bachelors at Manhattan School of Music. There, professors, students, and string musicians all over the city found out about my wooden mutes by word of mouth and I began selling my pieces to the New York Philharmonic and orchestras all over the world. During school breaks, I would come home to my woodshop in my dad’s garage and make collections of woodwork, that I would then sell through my travels meeting musicians, as well as on my website. I posted about them on my instagram occassionally, but my audience grew really organically through word of mouth thanks to classical musicians. Outside of my personal woodwork, in the past years I also worked as a luthier for Blast Cult, building electric basses and rockabilly guitars, as well as Lemur Music, an upright bass shop in San Clemente. After 7 years living between NYC, LA, and Europe, I finally moved home this year to focus on my wood and music career in California.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has been quite a smooth road, but definitely a winding one. Over the past 7 years I have lived between NYC, California, Mexico, and Italy, but I only have my woodshop in California. I would bring unfinished pieces with me all over the world to carve, sand, and finish my sculptures by hand. Luckily, most of them are small, so they fit easily in my purse. Wherever I go, I usually have a chunk of wood and a whittling knife somewhere nearby. As an upright bassist, I play an instrument that is too large to travel with, so during my period living in Italy, I went on many a wild goose chase to find upright basses in remote Italian villages.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am most known for my wooden mutes for stringed instruments. My wooden mutes are for violins, violas, cellos, and basses, and change the sound of the tone, almost like a pedal for a guitar. Classical music has historically called for wooden mutes in sheet music since the 16th century, yet there are less than 5 people in the world today who currently make wooden mutes. I am one of these people, and each of my pieces are hand carved and unique to the piece of wood. I listen to the grain in the wood to find the most resonant, organic shape, and I love helping people to explore the sound of their instrument through wood. Outside of mutes, I make avant garde wooden house ware, such as spatulas, spoons, butter knives, chopsticks, and more. I think my house ware has a lot of character, while allowing the wood to shine and be appreciated as art from the earth.

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I see my industry slowly growing over the next 5-10 years. I think people, especially in music, are interested to use tools and techniques from the past and building with them. Wooden mutes are a beautiful sonic addition to music that can make such a huge change. You cannot create these changes in tones digitally, especially in a live setting, and I think as a society we are growing to appreciate the beauty and simplicity of timeless tools. In the house, I think there is a big trend towards organic, sustainable home ware. We are more in touch with the energy and quality of what we put in our bodies and homes, and to turn an item that gets daily use into a piece of art is something that I strive to do, and I feel their is room in the industry to expand this theme.

Pricing:

• I sell my work on my website siennageo.com
• I do comissions very often

Contact Info:

• Website: https://siennageo.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sienna.geo/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@siennageorge5913

Image Credits
B&W photos by Gabriel Madie,
color photos of me by Adam Sisler.
woodwork photos by me Sienna George