timothy white furniture maker

Kevin Beltz

2011-06-24T21:47:00.000-06:00

8&3

My friend Kevin Beltz is a sculptor and jewelry maker whose work will be included in the upcoming 22nd International Juried Exhibition at Viridian Artists in New York. The show will run from 6/28/11 through 7/16/11, with an opening reception on 6/30 from 5:00-8:00 pm. The gallery is located at 530 West 25th street, #407, and the phone number is 212-414-4040. It will be a cool show, so check it out if you are in the neighborhood.

Knock

Nueva Era Show 2011

2011-06-02T13:02:00.000-06:00

Come on out to Gunnison Arts Center tomorrow from 5-8pm to check out the 2011 Nueva Era show, a mixed media show featuring Gunnison Valley artists. Thanks to Laura Cooper Elm for putting this show together!

I'll be showing some brand new mixed media pieces, including this Long Shot Shelf.

I hope to see you there!

Steve Belz

2011-05-22T21:50:00.001-06:00

Today I had a chance to catch up with my friend Steve Belz, who is in grad school for ceramics at Kansas State University. He's been doing some really cool work! You can check it out by clicking here. Now would be a great time to buy his work, before he becomes famous.

Show Time Again!

2011-03-04T21:19:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe how this winter has flown by. I had a really good show in Westchester last fall, my last one for 2010, and got to hang out with some friends and family for longer than I had planned. Now, it's March already, and after a fair amount of powder skiing mixed in with working on various projects, it's time to hit the road for the kick off of the 2011 show season. I'm cutting back a little on my show schedule this year, but I have two coming up: The Scottsdale Art Festival next weekend, March 11-13; and the American Craft Council St Paul Show, April 15-17. I'm looking forward to warming my bones and seeing some friends in Scottsdale, and of course to having a good show!

The Westchester Craft Show

2010-10-13T09:25:00.000-06:00

I will be showing my work at the Westchester Craft Show in White Plains, NY this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, October 15,16, and 17. You can find more information and directions by clicking here. Come see me in Booth 27 (please check the show program in case there are booth assignment changes).

Here's a brief description from the show website: Celebrating its seventeenth anniversary, the Westchester Craft Show is a leader among juried contemporary American craft shows. The show offers its sophisticated New York and Connecticut audience a highly-selective showcase of exceptional work and the opportunity to meet the artists who come from all over the United States. The 115 outstanding artists will be presenting a rich diversity of craft: basketry, ceramics, glass, fiber decorative and wearable, furniture, jewelry, leather, metal, mixed media, and wood.

I'm looking forward to a great show. I hope to see you there!

Artwalk Tonight!

2010-09-30T07:37:00.001-06:00

My work will be featured at the JC Leacock Photography Gallery tonight during Artwalk. Come to the gallery at 327 Elk Avenue in Crested Butte between 5 and 8 for some refreshments and good conversation, and check out some cool furniture and photography.

New Work

2010-08-24T22:56:00.007-06:00

Here are a few recently completed pieces.

"Plant Parts" is a found object coffee table incorporating an old industrial hand wheel with organic leaf forms. In addition to the cast iron found object, it's made of claro walnut, ash, and 3/8"thick tempered glass. Buy it here.

Here's the latest in the "Aggregate Bench" series. This one has a bookmatched, figured claro walnut seat and is the first piece made using the recycled concrete mix I've been experimenting with. Buy it here.

This coffee table,"Harmony Interrupted", is also pretty recent. It has a bookmatched, figured claro walnut top from the same board as the aggregate bench above, and cast concrete base sections. Buy it here.

Hey, where is everybody?

2010-08-22T19:49:00.004-06:00

Last weekend, August 13, 14 & 15, was the Telluride Festival of the Arts in Telluride Mountain Village. It was a nice event to be sure, put on once again by the Cherry Creek Art Festival organization, and they did a top notch job. The festival had a couple of major problems, though, one mine, and one theirs.

Mine was that I was sick...I found out right at the end of the show that I had pneumonia. Not much to be done about that but to suffer through, which I did. Many thanks to Sue and Dr. Dan for putting us up anyway, and to Dan for his medical advice. I hope you are staying healthy!

The festival's major flaw was that hardly anyone showed up! I participated in this show last year, and was not expecting huge droves of people, but I did expect a lot more than what we got. It was a bit like the short film "The Lost People of Mountain Village", although not quite as bad. It was a shame, as there was a lot of really good work at the show. I'm not sure how (or if ) the show was advertised, but it clearly wasn't very effective. Even during the Grand Tasting event Saturday night, when some people actually showed up, the focus was on food and wine, with the visual art being more of a side show. Maybe that's appropriate for a rag tag bunch of freaks who make our living this way, but it doesn't help to pay the rent.

While I wish more people had shown up, some of those who did really appreciated the work...so thanks to you for coming and checking it out. I got to look around a bit and here is a selection of some of my favorite work from the show, by no means an exhaustive list:

Robert Matthews and Leslie Guinan

Jackson Schwartz- cool glass. This guy needs a website!

Marlene Rose

Lisa Pedolsky

To see the rest of the artists on the festival website, click here.

My Other Job

2010-08-05T21:30:00.005-06:00

This weekend, in between the Crested Butte Arts Festival and the Telluride Festival of the Arts, I'll be working at my other job. Plenty of people have two jobs, but I don't know many who like their other job as much as I do. Mine is working for Alison White Photography, my wife's company. Not only do I get to work with my lovely wife, I get to figure out lighting problems and sometimes get behind a camera. I find photography to be a good counterpoint to furniture design and making...a creative cross pollination of sorts. Both deal with light in their own interesting ways- one using surfaces and textures to shape and direct light, and the other using light on an object or person to create or evoke a mood or feeling. I'm lucky to have the opportunity to work with Alison, who's work continually amazes me, and also to have a bunch of friends who are also really good photographers. You can see some of Alison's work here or here.

Found Objects

2010-07-22T23:19:00.007-06:00

I've been wanting to make some found object pieces lately, and have been on the lookout for some worthy objects. Found objects impose certain restrictions on a piece - you have to work with the limitations of the object and do something that makes sense with it. The piece follows from the thing, and lately I've been liking the idea of that kind of starting point. I also like the idea of taking a cast off item and giving it a new life.I was lucky enough to find these objects in Kevin Beltz's front yard, and he was kind enough to give them to me with the caveat that I make something cool out of them. Kevin is a jewelry maker and sculptor who who makes a lot of found object pieces that I really like. Someday I'll own one. He wasn't going to use these particular items because they are cast iron and he prefers steel. They were just what I've been looking for. I'm making two coffee tables out of them, one of which I may have complete for the Crested Butte Arts Festival on 7/31 and 8/1. Come by and see if it's done...I'll be in booths 128 and 129 at the corner of Third and Elk.

Recycled Concrete part 1

2010-06-15T23:01:00.007-06:00

Why recycled concrete? Concrete's active ingredient, portland cement, is pretty energy intensive to manufacture and so I thought I'd check out some alternatives to see if I could find something recycled or less energy consuming to produce. What I found is a portland cement replacement product called Eccorok that's made mostly from recycled coal ash. I also replaced the traditional aggregate (sand and stone) with recycled glass for a mix that's about 98% recycled. Coal ash is often used to replace a portion of the portland cement in a traditional mix, but this product is the first I've found that uses such a high percentage of it.

The photo above is a form containing the first four test pours that I did to check the proportions of my ingredients. The one below is the blocks after being removed from the form.

The first one on the left follows (with a couple of small changes) a recipe that was given to me by Tom Fischer of Fishstone, the company I bought the supplies from. It was a bit too dry, most likely because of a substitution I made in the mix - note how many voids remain. For the next one (second from left) I lowered the aggregate amount a bit and it flowed much better. This one is pretty close to the mix I'll cast the first project with. The third one from the left is a "light weight mix" test. I replaced 30% (by volume) of the aggregate with microspheres (very small empty glass spheres) to decrease the weight. It worked great, but I'm not sure the weight decrease is worth the cost increase for general use. More on that in a future post. The last block (on the right) is the same mix as #2 with the addition of black pigment, and again, this is really close to the mix I'll use for the first casting.

The next step is to clean these up, fill the voids and seal them. I'll show you how they came out in a future post. I'm hoping to have some pieces made with this mix ready for the Crested Butte Arts Festival. Come by and check them out.

Studio Sale at Spellbound Furniture Works Store!

2010-05-10T20:29:00.004-06:00

I need to make room for some new work! Now through June 12, 2010 you can purchase one of a kind pieces of furniture directly from my online store at reduced prices. If you've been considering a piece you saw at a show recently, now is the time to buy it. The pieces being offered are in limited supply. Check it out by clicking here.

Greetings from St. Paul

2010-04-15T19:02:00.003-06:00

I'm here in St. Paul for the American Craft Council show which begins tomorrow, 4/16, and runs through Sunday, 4/18. The show is at the River Centre convention center which is a really cool venue in downtown St. Paul. Set up was today and went quite smoothly. Here's a cell phone photo of my booth - my kingdom for an iPhone!

I didn't get to walk around too much today, but the work I saw looked really good. You can browse the show by clicking here and selecting a category from the menu on the website. I'll be posting some updates during the show on my facebook page: facebook.com/twfurniture

So long, old friend.

2010-03-24T22:53:00.002-06:00

I got word today that my old friend Gary DiPirro had passed away. Gary was a furniture maker and my first mentor. He taught me a lot early in my career... a debt that I can only hope to repay by teaching someone else. Although I didn't see him that often these past few years (there was a good portion of the U.S. to travel to get together), all that I learned from him and the good memories of working together are with me every day. Goodbye Gary, I'll miss you.

Got my mojo workin'

2010-02-26T21:05:00.003-07:00

Mojo table

MOJO n., pl., -jos, or -joes.
1.A magic charm or spell.
2.An amulet, often a small flannel bag containing one or more magic items, worn by adherents of hoodoo or voodoo.
3.Personal magnetism; charm

As Muddy Waters used to sing "I got my mojo workin'" As the Palm Beach Fine Craft Show quickly approaches, I'm workin' all the mojo I can come up with! Darrell Hofheinz of The Palm Beach Daily News wrote a story about me and my work, which ran today. You can see the online version by clicking here.

I'll be workin' my mojo in Palm Beach from March 5 through March 7 in booth 710. There's a preview event Thursday, March 4. See the website for ticket info.

Profile: Richard C. Harrington

2010-02-05T13:52:00.014-07:00

A few days ago I had the chance to talk to the painter Richard C. Harrington about his work in general and about the new work in his show, “The Artifact of Landscape”, which opens this week at the Lockhart Gallery at SUNY Geneseo. I have known Rick for about 20 years, and in addition to sharing many great times with him, I’ve had the pleasure of watching him evolve from a good painter to a great painter. Yeah, I know, “great” is a big word that gets thrown around a bit too freely sometimes, but in this case it is absolutely appropriate.

A painter for the past 31 years, Rick’s work has evolved over time from representational work to something more abstract that, for him, digs deeper into the answer to the question “why paint?” Early on in his career, while supporting himself working as an art director and designer at an ad agency and then later as an illustrator, Rick was spending a lot of time painting. He studied portraiture with Peter Berg of Rochester, NY, and honed his skills making plein air paintings. Rick was influenced early on by the work of Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent, particularly their brush strokes which combined precision and flourish. Always drawn to the outdoors, he naturally gravitated to painting landscapes.

About 10 years ago, Rick received a grant to paddle the Genesee River from Pennsylvania to Lake Ontario and produce a sketchbook of the trip. It proved to be a pivotal trip for the direction his painting would take. Although the paddling part of the trip was great, the sketchbook brought him to the realization that he didn’t really care about what he was doing. The sketchbook had become “…something destined for a drawer somewhere, not to be seen until my kids settled my estate… so what?” Why paint?

To help him find the answer, Rick turned to two things that always helped clear his head: reading and the outdoors. Reexamining the work of authors Barry Lopez, Richard Nielson and Hugh Brody and spending plenty of time out in nature led him to the belief that ”we hold remnants of landscape in our minds as a way of navigating our world pre-map, compass, and gps.” This prompted an exploration of our primitive connection to the land through a contemporary mindset, in a society increasingly removed from nature.

Some of my favorite work resulting from this exploration is a series of non-representational barn paintings, including this one, ”old woman’s barn”. As Rick says, “the memories of simple forms and shapes in the land orient us, locate us in place.” By blending the influence of Mark Rothko in seeking an emotional response to color and form with the iconic image of a barn, Rick has created a monument to people who do physical work, and an homage to his ancestors who were (and are) ranchers in Oregon and Washington. Even without knowing this, it is impossible to look past this painting and others in the series. They draw you in and keep you there for a while.

Rick’s latest body of work, “The Artifact of Landscape”, continues the exploration. He posits that “When you are out in nature, assuming you are physically comfortable, you are peaceful. Its ability to provide a mechanism for stepping back from the stresses that our society manufactures for us to a place of peace is the value of nature in the modern world, and we need to keep some of it intact” To that end, Rick’s new work seeks to bring nature indoors to reengage those who’ve become disconnected. These large canvases- 4’ x 5’ and larger, sometimes combined as diptychs and triptychs- are somewhat representational from a distance, but up close reveal an abstract impressionistic surface texture (think Franz Kline and Jackson Pollock). They are often combined with a shadow box/ curio cabinet containing found objects, photographs and sketches.

These items along with the scale of the work and the bold, aggressive surface texture are meant to evoke the feeling of being in the place and give a sense of its inhabitants, to feel “not just the wind in your face, but the breeze between your fingers”

The show “The Artifact of Landscape” by Richard C. Harrington is at the Lockhart Gallery at SUNY Geneseo from February 1 to March 12, 2010. An opening reception will take place on Saturday, February 6, from 5 – 7 pm. Click the links below to see more of Rick’s work.

field notes from 100 horse studio

small work

Showtime!

2010-01-22T19:39:00.006-07:00

This morning when I checked my email the image above was in my inbox... needless to say, I was pretty psyched! Six weeks from right now, 20,000 or so people will have received this postcard, some percentage of them will have come to see the table on the card in my booth at this show, and (hopefully) one lucky person will be awaiting delivery of the piece to their home.

I'm really excited to be in two shows in March. The first, The Palm Beach Fine Craft Show, put on by Crafts America, takes place March 5, 6, and 7 at the Palm Beach Convention center in Palm Beach, FL. The second, the American Craft Council Atlanta Show, put on by The American Craft Council, takes place March 12, 13, and 14 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta, GA.

This will be my first time participating in either of these shows. Both are juried and showcase studio craft artists from around the country. I'll also get to warm my bones and see some friends and family while travelling. If you are in the neighborhood, please come and see me. I'll be in booth # 710 in Palm Beach and #612 in Atlanta.

New Website!

2009-12-12T13:59:00.007-07:00

I'm really happy to announce the launching of a new website: The Spellbound Furniture Works Store e-commerce site. It features my current inventory of contemporary furniture pieces available for sale. Shipping is free from my Crested Butte, CO studio to the continental United States.

This new site has been in the works on and off for many months. This is largely because I built it myself and I am not really a website builder. When I say "built it" I guess what I really mean is I found things available out there on the interweb and put them together to do what I wanted. I didn't start from scratch and have to learn how to write code or anything like that, although I did have to modify some of it. I stumbled quite a bit along the way, and got some advice from friends here and there, particularly Troy Parker, a photographer and mixed media artist who is very tech savvy. Thanks Troy! You can check out some of Troy's work by clicking here. In the end I'm pretty happy with how my website turned out. If you check it out and have any feedback, I'd love to hear it, positive or not.

On another note, the new Guild Sourcebook of Art volume 24 has been published and I am one of the included artists. There is also an online version - click here to see my page. This weighty volume contains lots of cool work by artists from around the country. Its mission is to be a bridge between people looking for a certain kind of art and the artists who create it.

Thanks to everyone who has already looked at my new website and sent me feedback. I really appreciate it.

Kraus Guitars

2009-11-17T21:21:00.006-07:00

Are you looking for a new guitar? If so, you should check out these beauties made by my old friend Bill Kraus. Each one is painstakingly handcrafted in his shop near Lockport, NY.
The level of craftsmanship in these instruments is not often found these days, and it is apparent not only in their looks but also in their amazing sound.

I have known Bill since 1973 when, on my first day of third grade in a new school in a new neighborhood my family had just moved to, our teacher, Mrs. Suggs, asked the class to write something in cursive longhand. Being new to the terminology, I had no idea what she was talking about, so I started to look around to see what the other kids were doing. The kid behind me picked up on the fact that I was completely lost, and catching my eye as I looked behind me, he said in a loud voice "What, don't you know cursive?". That was Bill.

For some reason that still escapes me, we became friends. As teenagers, when we weren't busy getting into trouble, we spent many hours playing guitar and listening to music. I always figured Bill would go on to a career in music, as a musician, but after a rather circuitous path he found his music career as a luthier. He's really well suited to it.

You can see more of Bill's work by clicking here. I can't recommend these guitars highly enough.

What's New

2009-11-04T09:09:00.007-07:00

After a bit of a hiatus and some much needed down time and family time, I'm back to blog world. Look for more frequent posts on a variety of subjects.

Before I dive into what's new, I want to thank Jos and Teresa Rijks for having me back as a guest artist for the August Artwalk, and Janet Farmer for buying the rest of the first batch of Huckle vases.

What's new...

My new work, including the sprout clothes trees and other pieces from last summer's show season have been added to my website. You can see a slide show of the model making for the sprout base in a previous post. The sprouts have cast concrete bases, and so are very sturdy for their small footprint. The wooden stems of those pictured are, from left to right, curly hard maple, cherry, and curly soft maple. The "buds" are stainless steel rods that function as hooks. The sprouts have a 10" diameter base and are 58" tall. You can see the current inventory of the sprouts and other available work in the available pieces gallery on my website.

A few months ago, I was talking to my friend Rick Harrington who said he'd like to see more detail images of my work on my website. I thought it was a great idea, and so I've added a new details gallery to the site. I would value any feedback you may have on this new gallery.

And the winner is...

2009-08-26T21:28:00.002-06:00

Earlier this month at both the Crested Butte Art Festival and the Telluride Festival of the Arts I offered a chance to win a Huckle Vase in a drawing which was held last Tuesday, August 18. This helped me to connect with people who are interested in my work and also gave people the chance to win something. The Huckle Vase is a new piece for me this summer, so new that it hasn't been photographed yet. It is a cast concrete bud vase with a fluted texture cutting across a smooth surface with a wooden strip set into it. Like many of the pieces I've been working on, it plays the smooth refined wood against the coarser concrete. The name comes from a character in a Richard Scarry children's book, who's name my son has given me as a nickname. The winner of the drawing was Kirk DeVincentis of Montrose, CO. Congratulations Kirk!. For those of you who didn't win, I will have three more vases with me at Rijks Family Gallery tomorrow evening, 8/27, where I will be featured as a guest artist for Art Walk from 5:00 - 8:00 pm. I hope to see you there!

Telluride Festival of the Arts

2009-08-13T21:32:00.002-06:00

I'm in Telluride, Colorado for this weekend's Festival of the Arts in Mountain Village, which is a short (as well as free and beautiful) gondola ride from town. My friend Jonathan Augello, who is an architect here in Telluride, was kind enough to let me stay with him for a few days. It's great to get to catch up with him a little. We don't get to see each other so much since he moved from Crested Butte.

The Telluride festival is interesting in that it is a smaller festival (at least in terms of the number of artists) featuring the work of about 50 visual artists along with food and wine vendors. Instead of being arrayed down a single street, the festival winds its way through the core of Mountain Village intermixing artist's booths with food and wine booths. There's a free Joan Osborne concert tomorrow night from 5 - 7 that I hope to be able to hear some of from my booth location.

If you're lucky enough to find yourself in Telluride this weekend, and you like art, fine food and good wine, be sure to check it out.

Down Time

2009-08-09T21:56:00.011-06:00

It's been a really busy summer so far. I've been working on some commissioned pieces and getting ready for art festivals, and my wife, Alison, a talented photographer who focuses (really bad pun intended) on portraits and weddings has been much in demand. All this work has left Oliver wondering what's up, so we decided to take him camping this past weekend, the first one we've had free all summer. We spent a couple of nights in Erickson Springs on the other side of Kebler pass. Guitars were played, hikes were hiked, marshmallows were roasted and a good time was had by all, particularly Oliver who found some really gooey black mud next to a little swimming hole on the river.

This morning we packed up and headed into Paonia, about a half hour away, to go to Orchard Valley Farms to pick some fresh veggies. Our timing was good, and although the peaches aren't ready yet we came home with a whole bunch of Thai and Italian basil and some fresh peppers to roast, as well as a bunch of other things. We're all big basil fans - even Oliver who had pesto for dinner last night - so we're hoping to make enough pesto to last a few months. We also like roasted peppers quite a bit, so the fresh anaheims were a welcome sight!

It's back to the studio tomorrow, but the down time sure was nice. This week I'll be getting ready to head over to the Telluride Festival of the Arts, which takes place next weekend, 8/14 - 8/16.

Process: Sprout Model

2009-07-13T23:39:00.004-06:00

Here's a sneak preview of part of a piece I'm working on for the CB Arts Festival. This slideshow is of the making of a model for the cast concrete base of a piece called "sprout". The model is made of styrofoam and modeling clay and was really fun to make. I've carved models out of wood for previous pieces, but the relative ease of working with clay, particularly the ability to stick material back on if you remove too much, has me sold.

Fester

2009-07-05T14:03:00.004-06:00

This morning, before the day's rain moved in, Oliver and I set up the new art festival tent in the yard to get familiar with assembling the 900 or so parts that make it up. It went together great and took only a little longer with Oliver's help than it would've alone. He had fun digging holes under the tent to look for worms.

I'm looking forward to the two festivals I'll be participating in next month, and setting up the new tent made me realize just how soon August will be here. The first fest is the Crested Butte Arts Festival taking place on Elk Avenue in Crested Butte August 1st and 2nd. The second event is the Telluride Festival of the Arts taking place in Telluride's Mountain Village August 14th, 15th and 16th. Click the links to their websites for lists of participating artists and schedules of festival events.

I'm working on some new pieces that I'll be showing at the CB festival. You can check back here in the coming weeks for some sneak previews of the work. I'm very psyched that once again my old friend Richard Harrington will be participating in the CB festival and staying with us for a few days. Rick is an amazing painter and printmaker whom I met many years ago when I lived in Rochester, NY. We used to spend a lot of time whitewater kayaking together, something he still does a little of. He will be in a double booth this year, space #43 & 44, on the corner of Elk Ave. and Third Street. I'll be right next to him in booth #45. Come check it out.

Studio Sale at LCE Fine Arts Studio

2009-06-22T20:59:00.006-06:00

Laura Elm and Carol Connor will be having a Studio Sale at Laura's studio, LCE Fine Arts Studio, located at 822 Whiterock in CB, this Thursday, June 25, from 10 am to 4 pm. You'll be able to see (and purchase) original works in a home setting rather than a gallery, and get a good feel for how the piece might look in your home. Check it out!

The Peak magazine

2009-06-19T22:18:00.004-06:00

The fine people at the CB News included an artist profile of me in the first issue of their new publication The Peak magazine. To view it on line, click on the link, then click on the "view magazine" tab and then select pg.34-35. Also featured in this issue are Ben Eaton and Heather Peterson. Thanks to the News for a cool resource for home owners and buyers in the Crested Butte Area!

Gallery Changes

2009-06-15T23:09:00.026-06:00

After many years of being represented by various galleries, I've decided to pull back and mostly go it alone, at least for a while. This will be the last week to purchase my work from Shidoni. Beginning on Tuesday 6/23/09, I will no longer be represented by them. I wish them the best.

As of today, 6/15/09, the nature of my relationship with the Rijks Family Gallery in Crested Butte has changed. They will continue to show my work in their online gallery, but I will no longer have pieces in the physical gallery. I want to send out a very big thank you to Jos and Teresa Rijks for the years of support and floorspace they have given me. They have been a pleasure to work with and I look forward to our new arrangement as another chapter, rather than the end of the story.

I'm really excited to be selling my work on my own. It gives me much greater flexibility in my marketing, and the ability to offer my clients the best possible value when buying a piece.

You can see my inventory on my website by clicking on the galleries tab and looking in the available pieces gallery.

Mixed Media

2009-06-14T08:56:00.006-06:00

Wood, concrete and stainless steel have been a recurring material theme in a lot of my work lately. I've had a lot of fun experimenting with concrete over the past few years, and this piece provided a good opportunity to make some larger parts with it. Most of the steel parts I've incorporated have been very simple accents, partly because that's what the designs wanted, and partly so I could accomplish the work with the equipment and metalworking skills I have. As the design for this piece evolved (see the post from 2/25/09 for more on that), it became clear that fabricating the prominent steel parts was going to require the help of a skilled metalworker. None of the metalworkers I like to work with in Creted Butte specialize in stainless steel work, so I called on my friend Doug Cernonok of DC-Tek in Atlanta for help. Doug does a lot of work with stainless steel, and he and I have talked about doing a project together for a few years. This was the perfect opportunity. He did a great job turning my design into some very well executed parts. I look forward to working with him again.

Concrete

2009-04-11T20:55:00.003-06:00

For many years, wood has been the primary material I work with, and I would say that is still true. Over the past ten or twelve years I have been incorporating other materials like steel, glass and concrete into my work when a design calls for it, generally as accents. A few pieces have approached the half and half point between wood and some other material, but the Monolith Bench is the first piece I have ever made without incorporating any wood. Partly it was an exercise to explore a new direction, but mostly it was just how I saw the piece. To me this seems like a natural evolution as a furniture maker. Expanding the range of materials I work with has sometimes pushed me out of my comfort zone and presented many new technical challenges, both good things in my opinion, but, more importantly, it has greatly opened up the possibilities of what I can do, which in turn has fueled many new ideas. It has also led me to some interesting collaborations with other artists when my skills with a material weren’t a match for my ideas. Approaching a project as a furniture maker rather than strictly as a woodworker and selecting materials that are true to my vision of the piece is, for me, a much more satisfying way to create. I won’t be selling my chisels any time soon though.

Influential Dog

2009-02-26T22:20:00.004-07:00

As a follow up to yesterday's post, here's a photo of one of the dogs who influenced the design of the console table. Although a side view might have given a better idea of the dog/ table shape relationship, this is what I have.

Slacker

2009-02-25T21:52:00.006-07:00

Wow! Clearly making Blog entries is not my strongest attribute. In the 2 1/2 months since I last wrote, I've been busy. Just before Christmas, I completed a commission for some clients in Crested Butte. Here's a photo of the Console Table I made for them.

This piece is made of Curly Sugar Maple from a great board I cut into veneer, and it has Ebonized Sugar Maple legs. I think the design was subconsciously influenced by the client's dogs. More on that later.

I've also been working on a commission for another client. It's a pair of Dining Tables which can be used independently, or pushed together to make one large table. Here are some digital renderings of the pieces.

The tables are made of concrete, stainless steel and wenge. Each piece will weigh about 450 lbs., so pushing them together may not be that easy! They should be complete by the end of next week, so check back for photos.

Also in the works right now is companion end table that will be across the room from the console table pictured above, as well as a couple of speculative pieces for shows and galleries.

As always, thanks for your interest.

A good time was had by all

2008-12-12T22:42:00.002-07:00

Thanks to everyone who came to the artist's reception for the Cafe d'Art show at Gunnison Arts Center on Thursday. A good time was had by all, and especially by art critic Oliver, who was particularly fond of the cheese and crackers and the live music provided by John Elm. Nice job, Laura.

Cafe d'Art

2008-12-07T14:48:00.004-07:00

Come check out Cafe d'Art at the Gunnison Arts Center, showing now through December 24 in the main gallery. This invitational show was put together by ceramacist and painter Laura Cooper Elm and features work that is for, about, or an enhancement to dining. I have made a piece for the show entitled Coffee Bean. It's a small table equally well suited to having coffee with a friend or working on your laptop.

The artists reception is Thursday, December 11, from 5 - 7 pm. Snacks and beverages will be served. I hope to see you there.

Inventory

2008-12-02T22:00:00.003-07:00

Here is the work that is currently available. Contact me or the galleries for pricing.

Studio Direct:
Aggregate Bench 1 black concrete, 2 red concrete
Bent coffee table
Tribal Mirror (maple burl)
Drawbridge coffee table
Monolith bench

Rijks Gallery:
Aggregate bench
Libeskind table

Shidoni:
Room screen
Big ash bench
Who's the fairest (mirror)
Coffee table #1

my first venture into the blogoshpere

2008-11-20T23:29:00.007-07:00

If you're reading this, chances are good that you've been to my new website. If you got here accidentally and you want to go there, click here. I hope you liked the site and found it to be user friendly, easy to navigate and most of all cool. There will be a few more features added in the coming weeks, including a calendar of exhibitions and shows, and a links section. Feedback is always appreciated! Please leave a comment here, or drop me a line from the website.

Check back here in a few days for a list of my current inventory.

Cheers!