Comments (0) Just a quick update on the hacking of my website. At this point I have replaced all the images that were deleted from my website gallery by the hacker. I have yet to replace all the information on the size and materials and other information about each individual piece, the task just seems to daunting for the moment ,but if you want specific information on a piece you see on my website please feel free to contact me.
My piece Totem#2 will be up for auction on custommade.com. Custom made a website of custom furniture makers offers an excellent resource for finding unique furniture on the web. I will post a link to the auction on the blog with more details when the auction goes live. For now though, I would to share some of the story behind the piece. Totem#2 was built in 1999 as an entry into the Furniture Society’s juried exhibition “The Circle Unbroken.” Accepted as one of 30 pieces juried into the show, it was exhibited at the Appalachian Center for Crafts in 1999 and at the Huntsville Museum of Art in 2000. Since then the piece has been shown in numerous venues -most notably the Society for Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh, PA. As the name of the piece alludes, Totem #2 was the second in series of cabinets whose inspiration was derived from images of African tribal initiation dance shields I found in the course of exploring my interest in African art. The other pieces in that body of work - Totem #1,Totem #3, Red & Yellow #1, and Big Ears, which can be viewed on my website - all exhibit a similar exploration of color, texture and geometric pattern. The shape of the door in Totem#2 was directly inspired from my research into shapes of the shields as was the idea for the carved out shape for the door handle. Which in the shields represented a place for the dancers to slide the shield over their arm. This piece also represents a bridge to my more figurative work, which came after the totem series. The figurative aspect developed by accident as I was playing around with the geometric shapes on the side of the cabinet. The shapes began to take the form of arms and the overall stature of the cabinet began to take on that of a figure with his hand on his hips.
The function of this piece is listed as CD cabinet as the shelves are spaced to accommodate CD’s, however the shelves can be removed to accommodate larger objects.
Totem #2 CD Cabinet 32”W x 78”H x 9”D constructed from walnut, ash and maple woods with painted details
I recently completed a project for a small town near me to make a couple of outdoor benches. Nothing complicated, just big chunky sturdily built benches made from cedar I bought from a local mill and put together to last many years in the wind and rain. The whole process of doing this project got me to thinking about those trendy words flying around these days, green and sustainable, and how they apply to me as a builder.
There are lots of new materials and recycled products out on the market to work with now, many of which claim to be green and sustainable and many of which visually are quite exciting. Bamboo and all of the different ways they have been able to manufacture it, is cool stuff and I would love to use it in a piece someday, as well as recycled beams from an old factory or plywood made from wheat. But alas all of the above are expensive and I have as yet been unable to convince a client to use them in a piece of furniture. So because of this am I not a green maker. Am I part of the problem and not the solution?
My little bench project helped me to gain some perspective on that matter. Here I was building something for a local town out of locally sourced materials built to last decades and most of the money stayed within my local community. All in all I would say that should score pretty high on the green and sustainability scale, so should I now pat myself on the back and call myself green worthy? The answer is unfortunately more complicated than that. Not all of my work meets the standards set by the bench project. In fact most does not. But it has caused me to think and compelled me to come up with a useful definition of “green” that I can work with.
For me the best definition is a personal one that reads more like a laundry list than a written in stone definition. I try and use local wood whenever possible. Short of that I try to use mostly eastern hardwoods. I stay away from exotic materials unless the client demands it and then I put on an environment surcharge which gets donated to a fund for forest stewardship. I try to use less toxic water-based finishes and non-toxic milk-based paints. As I learn more, I expect will add more to my laundry list. But in the end, the bottom line for me is building work that is of the highest quality construction designed to last for lifetimes.
When I sold my very first piece of furniture, my clients proclaimed that it would be in their family for generations. That is a powerful statement of sustainability in a disposable society where things are destined for the landfill almost from inception. While not as sexy as using recycled wood or bamboo or recycled plastic bottles, building furniture to last generations is my main contribution to helping create a better environment. I am still reluctant to pat myself on the back and call myself a green maker - there is still plenty more I could do for mother nature - but I am part of the solution.
Listen live on the internet stream on wcom radio Carrboro NC as I sit down with Chatham Arts director Molly Matlock on Tuesday December 1 and we discuss all thing art on her weekly radio show “Inside the Artist Studio”.Please tune in and give me some feed back on how it went or just ask me to better explain just what it is I was trying to say.
Studio Furniture Todays Leading Woodworkers by Tina Skinner which features some of my work is now available from Schiffer Publishing follow this link to order
Panorama theme by Themocracy
