Door Harp

When Bob Murphy retired as a house builder, he repurposed his woodworking skills to craft door harps. “Now I make much more expensive sawdust with all the exotic hardwoods I use,” he jokes. To create that sawdust—and, of course, the stunning instruments that welcome guests with warm tones—he turns to his studio’s heavy-duty machines. Those multitasking behemoths “keep me motivated to design and create new items each year,” he says. And if the tools ever fail to move him, there are the views. Recently, the California-based artist relocated the equipment from his shop to his mountain home on five country acres. “It gets up to a foot of snow in the winter with a 50-mile, 180-degree view of surrounding pine and oak trees,” he says. “That is inspiring by itself.”