Jon Billing

Jon Billing completed a two-year guitar-building program in his home state of Minnesota before moving to New York City to study sculpture at Hunter College. He runs a one-man furniture business, Big Sand Woodworking, out of Liberty Labs, a co-op woodshop in Brooklyn. His affection for Japanese aesthetics extends to tools as well as furniture: Last year he won the Japanese handplaning contest held at Yann Giguere’s Mokuchi Studio in Brooklyn with a 6-ft.-long shaving that measured 8 microns thick.