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Studio Furniture of the Renwick Gallery

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:50:47 GMT

Studio Furniture of the Renwick Gallery by Oscar P. Fitzgerald
Smithsonian American Art Museum in association with Fox Chapel Publishing, 2008.
$35.00; 224 pp.
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The best thing about museum collections is that the pieces are all actually there, to be experienced in person. That’s also the problem with collections: that the pieces must actually be there. So any collection that purports to be representative of a major movement ends up hamstrung by logistical realities. I’m guessing here, but the seminal piece or piece must not be available in many cases.

In this beautiful, wide-format soft cover, Oscar Fitzgerald does an admirable job of describing each maker’s importance to the movement, but the book is only as good as the collection itself, and time and again, I found a maker’s signature pieces missing. Garry Knox Bennett, John Dunnigan, Wharton Esherick, Michael Hurwitz, Kristina Madsen, Jere Osgood, the names are right but the pieces weren’t.

The curators had better luck with some than others. Wendell Castle and Sam Maloof got full justice. And I was exposed to wonderful pieces and makers I had never seen before. On the other hand, recent artists were included whose work is, frankly, mediocre. I saw a blasé version of a Windsor chair, a bad knockoff of a Maloof rocker, and a mediocre children’s chair by someone who was briefly a student and apprentice and then left the field. And some true heavyweights were left out: David Lamb and Terry Moore, with their unmistakably contemporary but always sure handed takes on period furniture; Brian Newell and Michael Puryear, who do the same thing with Asian and African motifs, respectively. Check past back covers of Fine Woodworking for others.

I came away thinking that the way to do a definitive book on the studio furniture movement is not to base it on one exhibit, even one at the nation’s greatest museum. Why be at the mercy of a curator’s whimsy and the realities of collection when all you need are photos of the pieces, not the pieces themselves? I’ll forward that thought to our books department here at the Taunton Press. Maybe they’ll take up the mantle.

Furniture and History of Charles Rohlfs

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:06:51 GMT

Posted by: Anatole Burkin

The Artistic Furniture of Charles Rohlfs by Joseph Cunningham
Yale University Press, 2008.
$65; 304 pp.
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Charles Rohlfs remains a lesser-known furniture designer from the Arts and Craft period, but his work is now fully cataloged in a new book and works by him will be on display in a traveling exhibition during mid-2009 to 2010.

“The Artistic Furniture of Charles Rohlfs,” by Joseph Cunningham, provides an in-depth look at the man who thumbed his nose at the tenets of Arts and Craft furniture as espoused by William Morris. While most of his contemporaries limited or avoided altogether any ornamentation on their work, and strived to build “honest” furniture with beefy, obvious joinery, Rohlfs was busy carving sinuous patterns on his pieces, mostly made of quartersawn white oak and frequently joined with screws covered up by plugs made to resemble pins.

Rohlfs’ work evokes many styles, from Victorian to Art Nouveau. His best pieces remind me of the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and designs by the Greene brothers.

A native of Brooklyn, Rohlfs studied engineering, eventually ending up working for a stove factory in Buffalo, N.Y. He also tried his hand at acting, but the reviews were harsh. One critic described Rohlfs’ role in a tragedy as “screamingly funny instead of sad.”

He began dabbling in furniture making as a hobby in the late 1800s, then was encouraged to do more by friends who wanted to buy his work. With the support of a successful wife, mystery novelist Anna Katharine Green, a new career was born.

Rohlfs did not drink the Arts and Crafts movement’s Kool-Aid and in fact mocked their ideology, in particular the Roycrofters (run by Elbert Hubbard in nearby East Aurora, N.Y.). In 1902, Rohlfs described his own shop as a place where “no profit sharing is practiced and none of us wear long hair.”

A well-researched, scholarly work, the book features a generous collection of weird, wacky, and wonderful pieces designed by a man who had his own unique vision and interpretation of Arts and Crafts.

New Silas Kopf Book

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:26:17 GMT

Posted by: Steve Latta

A Marquetry Odyssey: Historical Objects and Personal Work by Silas Kopf.
Hudson Hills Press, 2008.
$65.00; 232 pp.
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It is always a pleasure to read a work written by an author who has clear mastery of his subject matter. Such is the case with A Marquetry Odyssey by Silas Kopf.

As a furniture maker, Kopf strives to make beautiful and interesting objects. This book is full of such works, both by Kopf and the many experts from the past. Kopf writes about those who influenced the development of the craft and his personal odyssey toward mastering his form and finding his voice as an artist.

He introduces such masters as Émile Gallé, Jean-Henri Riesener, and David Roentgen, who each added their unique signature to the practice of marquetry. In addition, he covers a variety of techniques including Boulle’s use of precious materials, Pierre Ramond’s “piece-by-piece” method, and trompe l’oeil works inspired by Italian intarsia.

Boulle
Kopf explores the work of André-Charles Boulle, renowned for incorporating precious materials such as brass, pewter, and tortoiseshell into elaborate designs. In this technique, contrasting materials are cut in stack form with the pieces redistributed to form the final image. In works such as Boulle Cabinets with Daffodils (1992) Kopf illustrates his own mastery of this technique.

Daffodils two ways. Kopf inverted the daffodils on these two cabinet panels in Boulle-fashion. He crafted the cabinet from quilted and straight-grain mahogany, brass, aluminum, zircote, and bloodwood. Image from www.silaskopf.com

Piece-by-piece
While studying in Paris under the watchful eye of Pierre Ramond, Kopf learned the “piece by piece” method for cutting marquetry that allows multiple images to be made from a single “stack”, layers of veneer sandwiched together. In his piece Formication, (1991) 108 identical ants, cut in nine stacks of twelve images each, parade in opposite directions across the eight panels of the case.

Ants! Kopf’s elegant maple cabinet is covered with ants cut from brazilwood.

Trompe-l’oeil
Kopf is known for his trompe-l’oeil, or “trick of the eye,” work. His travels through Italy studying early Italian intarsia can explain why Kopf became so enamored with this style. The Gubbio studiolo, a small, odd-shaped room, which is now part of the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is a wonderful example of this fanciful work.

Ultimate intarsia. This installation gives the illusion of filled cabinets, latticework, even furniture using thousands of wood pieces. Visit the Met Web site for more information and pictures of the “studiolo.”

Kopf’s piece, Telephone Cabinet II, (1989) shows his comfort with the style and his characteristic wit.

Self portrait. Kopf put himself in this maple and zebrawood cabinet checking for change.

This is not a “how-to” book. Although the text includes technical explanations and an extensive appendix explaining the various methods, knowledge of the craft as a whole as opposed to instruction is the purpose of his writing. Kopf’s instructional DVD, The Master Techniques Of Marquetry, released in 2004, serves as a much better resource for those interested in learning the craft.

Kopf’s work has always had an inviting, comfortable feel despite the technical difficulty required in its execution. The same can be said for his book. It is a fulfilling visual and educational experience delivered in a friendly, conversational manner. Additionally, the scope and depth of Kopf’s work presented in these pages is overwhelming. As a fellow craftsman, I am grateful for what he has accomplished to date and eager to see his future endeavors.

Images courtesy of Hudson Hills Press unless otherwise noted

Inside a Student Woodworking Competition

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:57:29 GMT

Fresh Wood, vol. 3 Reinventing Workshop
Association of Woodworking & Furnishings Suppliers, 2008.
$29.95, 140 pp.
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Posted by: Anissa Kapsales

I’m always fascinated by what woodworking students are making. They have the luxury of experimentation in their designs, and because they have highly-experienced, well-rounded staff supporting them, their methods are usually right on.

That’s why I was glad when my editor assigned me to cover the Fresh Wood student woodworking competition at the Association of Woodworking & Furnishings Suppliers (AWFS) show in Las Vegas last summer. I saw the furniture in person and got to meet the makers too.

Now, this summer brings with it Fresh Wood v.3 Reinventing Woodshop, a striking and informative hardcover compilation of the student competition and much more. Edited by Nancy Fister and Adria Torrez, and photographed by furniture maker and competition judge Michael Fortune, Fresh Wood v.3 uses students’ commentaries about their work to give design inspiration and construction information. These details would be interesting for woodworkers at any level and with any background.

A handful of pages remind me of high school yearbook, with candid photo collages of the Fresh Wood participants, but it’s worth wading through them to get to the commentary from each of the furniture makers. It provides valuable insight into the risk students took with their designs, how they drew on historical precedents, the construction challenges they faced, and they ways they fixed mistakes. There are many great pieces and narratives to choose from. Here are a few of my favorites, which I didn’t get to show in the article I wrote last summer.

Patience breeds skill. A finalist in the competition, Tyler Brunelle (David Douglas High School, Portland, Ore.) spent a great deal of time on the hand-punched tin panels in this country pie safe. The challenges of this project taught him to increase quality and efficiency at the same time.

Modern methods on a medieval door. This massive door by Daniel Klus’ (North Canyon High School, Phoenix, Ariz.) looks old, thanks to distressing with a chisel, hammer, power sander, and nails, but Klus used thoroughly modern tools to build it with help from a CNC router, AutoCAD, a shaper, and more. A honey stain and dark brown glaze age the piece and highlight the distress marks.

One, two, three hundred. Like it or not, production work is a huge part of the woodworking industry, and the competition includes a production category. Samuel Provenza (Savannah College of Art & Design, Savannah, Ga.) took an honorable mention for his work on these nesting cabinets. The design takes packaging, shipping, and assembly into consideration. The cases nest inside one another, leaving room for packing materials and reducing the shipping size. And the entire piece is designed to be assembled within 15 minutes.

Past meets present. John Oscar Kizer III (Rockingham Community College, Wentworth, N.C.) chose to build a very traditional piece and began by designing it on the computer, in CAD 3D Max. But that’s as far as technology got him; it was back to hand tools for all the carving and dovetails, which helped earn his second place award in the reproduction category.

Two examples of the innovative designs. Glenwood Morris’ (North Carolina State University) rocking chair, left, is what he calls “the equivalent of a concept car in a furniture body.” Marisa Topping (Georgia Institute of Technology) incorporated an original bent-leg design to lighten the feel of the table, right, and give diners more leg space. Both designs were finalists in the post-secondary category, Morris for chairs and Topping for tables.

-Anissa Kapsales is an associate editor for Fine Woodworking magazine.

Photos courtesy of AWFS

Chairs: Get Inspired

Mon, 19 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT

Posted by: Matthew Teague

500 Chairs: Celebrating Traditional and Innovative Designs
Lark Books, 2008.
$24.95, 408 pp.
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As a maker of chairs and a fan of the form, I pick up most every book I find with the word “chair” in the title: 27 Chairs, 397 Chairs, 1000 Chairs. . . While I sometimes wish the editors of these books could come up with more creative titles, Lark’s new 500 Chairs is perhaps my favorite.

Part of Lark Books’ beautifully presented 500 Series—including similar collections like 500 Bowls, 400 Wooden Boxes, and 500 Baskets—500 Chairs opens with a brief but thoughtful essay on chairs by Craig Nutt. Then it showcases chairs in a clean format: color photos, titles, dimensions, maker, and, for the most part, little commentary. Whether your tastes lean toward the traditional or contemporary, functional work or artistic interpretations, you’re likely to find inspiration in this book. While light on period work and heavy on what is considered “studio furniture,” the book contains works that both match and challenge the tastes of most furniture-makers.

Chairs of all kinds. Two examples from the book: "Shield-Back Chair" by Alf Sharp and "Armatory Chair" by David Upfill-Brown.

The selection of chairs was juried by Nutt, a furniture-maker known for his use of vegetable forms in furniture (Nutt’s “Celery Chair with Peppers, Carrots & Snow Peas,” for one, is included here). This collection reflects his broad-ranging taste in furniture. While many chair-design books focus on non-wood chairs, the selection found here offers plenty for woodworkers: from Sam Maloof’s iconic rocker to Brian Boggs’ expertly re-engineered ladder-back to Nikolai Moderbacker’s, 11- ft.- long assemblage of 2x4s that is stacked, wedged, and strapped together. He considers it a chair but traditionalists might call it an insulting bundle of lumber.

"2 x 4 Strapped" by Nikolai Moderbacher

You’ll also find chairs made of aluminum, cork, vines set in resins, and clear vinyl chairs stuffed with wood chips—there’s just enough experimentation and whimsy to keep the collection from becoming predictable. And there are lessons to be learned from each of the chairs in this collection: If you see something you don’t like, take the time to figure out why.

More on Chairs

Photos courtesy of Lark Books