My name is Michael Sharf, I am the principal and lead designer at Taurus Studio (Formerly Tribe Studio).  I split my time between the SF bay area and Ojai.

As a child I was trained in woodworking, ceramics and metalwork by my teachers Ken Kettwig, Rick Frudden and Gavin Kermonde. I attended UC Berkeley for my undergraduate studies where I also played on the water polo team. While at Cal, I continued to make work in the metal shop and pottery studio, while I earned a BS in finance and accounting. From there I did a stint on wall-street, and played a few seasons of professional water polo in Spain and Brasil.  When I retired from playing water polo, I enrolled in graduate school at Stanford to focus on entrepreneurship and design. It was there that I founded BridgeAthletic, which has become one of the leading providers of athletic-training data management tools to professional sports teams and elite trainers around the world.

My path to Taurus started in my early 20’s as I noticed that my IKEA furniture collection started to deteriorate and ended up as a pile of useless scraps that I would have to dispose of. Albeit frustrating, I was not at all surprised by this. These pieces that I had collected over the years were inexpensive and clearly not meant to be moved once— let alone 2-3 times. The campaign against single use plastic was widespread in the communities where I spent most of my time. Yet, sadly there was, and still is, little said about the recent proliferation of single use furniture. 

In response to this, I decided that I would build all of the furniture for the spaces I was living and working in. My work continues to be rooted in its origin which is to serve as a statement against disposable furniture and more broadly to inspire conscious living. 

My wood/metal working and construction expanded beyond outfitting my personal spaces to constructing and building in a commission context, for both residential and commercial clients. I have challenged myself to use the language of design to push forward ideas around material-selection and the permanence and/ or longevity of the furniture itself. 

My aesthetic is California-contemporary with references to Japanese and Scandinavian design. I draw inspiration from furniture makers, architecture, fashion, environmental activists and culinary leaders. My favorite part of the process is that I allow materials to lead the way. I also invite the emotional aspects of shape, color and space as vehicles to influence a desired effect of a piece on its user or the space where it will exist. 

When I’m working with wood, my favorite material, I focus on utilizing naturally re-claimed . That doesn’t mean barn wood, but rather elm, cypress, walnut and oak trees that grow organically and fall naturally from old age. I work with arborists in Northern California whose craft is finding these trees, milling and drying the wood to be used in fine furniture making.

I look forward to hearing from you and helping you bring your dream-space to reality.