After a long absence, Sept 7th open event @ NHIA

I know, it has been a good year since I posted, and I have been meaning to get back, but life has intervened. Indeed, the unfolding dramas in Washington DC have taken up much more of my time and attention than I would have liked, but that aside, I want to invite all of my…

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Boston Design Week and AD-20/21

Just a heads up that Boston Design Week is coming to a close, and the Fort Point Cabinetmakers are having our work showcased at the AD 20/21 show at the Cyclorama in Boston. We have many pieces of our work on display, some just out of the finishing room! Join us if you have some…

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Dutch Design Week – Student Work

The Dutch Design Academy graduated 171 students this year, and one of the perks is that they get to exhibit their senior project at Design Week.  With 250,000 attendees (DDW’s figures), this is a powerful draw to keep students in the area through the end of October.  I talked with one student who had graduated…

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Dutch Design Week – Thoughts on Design

While we were in the Netherlands for Dutch Design Week, I began to focus on just what the catalysts are that make an area fertile ground for designers.  Eindhoven is not a big city, it is industrial in nature and in the interior of the country, not close to any significant centers for culture.  But…

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Vladimir Kagan’s last work

A few years ago at the Furniture Society Conference I met up with Vladimir Kagan at the time he was presented with the Award of Distinction.  A jovial fellow, his designs were going in some new directions, but I really didn’t keep in touch, so I lost track of what he was working on. This…

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Finishing the Desk Gallery

While I don’t write often, this desk gallery is something that I had to share – it is difficult, tough to design, and the execution is like completing a freeform jigsaw puzzle.  The design and first mockup only gets you so far.  Then you have to make it.  For real.  In hardwood.  With sharp tools.…

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Desk Galleries

  The buildout of a gallery for a fall front desk is like building an entirely new piece of furniture inside the piece you are making.  It takes a lot of thought and a great deal of craftsmanship to make the design sing, and a long time to execute the final design. A desk gallery stands…

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At the end of the project…

There is always an end of the project, where the piece is finished, or as finished as it is ever going to be.  It reminds me of the polisher in the Steinway piano factory.  When the tour group came through, one person asked him – “How do you know when it is finished?”  to which…

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Let’s talk Contemporary Furniture – Sept 22nd

When Ken Stone and I chaired the Furniture Society Conference here at MIT in 2010, we worked with Gail Fredell to create a book intended to be an overview of the contemporary furniture landscape in the US.  On Tuesday September 22nd, I’ll be talking about the subject, the book, and the furniture that is being…

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