Craft Show Artists 2010

Bonnie Bishoff — Rockport, MA   |   syronbishoff.com

We collaborate to create furniture that reflects the sensuous forms and patterns found in the natural world. We enjoy making surfaces that intrigue the eye on many levels. Our solid wood furniture incorporates unique veneers of polymer clay. We use both millefiori and marquetry techniques to create richly detailed surface designs in the polymer clay veneers. Our exploration and development of polymer clay techniques for these purposes is most unique.

Mark Del Guidice — Norwood, MA   |   markdelguidice.com

Finely crafted studio furniture with an emphasis on form and surface. The incised carvings are intuitive hieroglyphs, intended to evoke personal interpretations from each viewer; they are a response to the inundation of images from our visually sophisticated world. Symbols from symbols. Additionally, I carve morse code messages, utilizing the code from a visual perspective rather than its essentially audible form. I strive to expose the sculptural relationship of furniture to it's environment.

David D'Imperio — Stony Run, PA   |   daviddimperio.com

My lights are functional sculptures. They are a combination of new technology and old fashioned hand craftsmanship. I explore each idea through drawings, then models. Later I scale them up. The simple lines of the design are composed of hundreds of parts that have been cut, carved polished lacquered, turned, formed or engraved. Electricity then adds the final touch and magic. My current collection uses wood, metal, plastics and glass components.

Don & Jenifer Green — Delhi, NY   |   greentreehome.com

statement needed

Richard Judd — Paoli, WI   |   zazengallery.com

My furniture designs represent a continuous exploration in wood working techniques. My current work incorporates bending wood. Glue is applied to thin sheets, which are placed against a solid form and vacuum pressed. The birch ply core is a sustainable yield product. I carefully select the most highly figured veneer for the faces. It is estimated that this technique uses one tenth of the natural resources compared to solid wood construction.

Michael Lamar & Gibb Brownlie — Warren, RI   |   altamiralighting.com

Handcrafted table lamps that combine natural and man-made materials: glazed ceramic bases; resin stems; brass and silver accents; handpainted shades and silk shades.

Michelle Lipson — Philadelphia, PA   |   michellelipson.com

Before beginning my furniture career, I worked with a non-profit organization building straw bale houses. The work was a collaborative process and often details were discussed and added as the work progressed. I see my role as a furniture maker as a logical progression from these roots. I use traditional joinery, bent lamination and different carving techniques to create my furniture. Angled planes, subtle curves and clean simple lines define and sculpt each piece. I find rounded forms and curved shapes alluring and comfortable. It's my intention to encourage thought about how we interact with and embellish our surroundings

Alan I. Lorn — Wynnewood, PA     

Classically inspired fine furniture. Thoughtful, meticulous craftsmanship along with colorful exotic woods and materials used as design elements distinguishes my work.

Bradford Smith — Worcester, PA   |   bradfordwoodworking.com

Furniture is often categorized into easily recognized styles such as Shaker, County or Arts and Crafts. Over the past 25 years, I have worked to develop a design language that is truly my own. In doing so I have been able to create furniture that cannot be pigeonholed into an existing style. Despite this, my work has a familiarity. I achieve this through the use of recycled materials, good proportions, and old-fashioned usefulness. I find a warmth and history in each salvaged piece of lumber that I use. The marriage of old and new that can be found in my work plays an important role in expressing the richness of things made today and things made decades ago. I want my furniture to not only tell a story, but also be the beginning of a new story.

Damian Velasquez — Albuquerque, NM   |   modernhandcrafted.com

My work is an expression of my desire to offer beauty in objects we use everyday, like furniture. Working with my hands is as natural for me as breathing. At age eleven, I began learning from my father to make silver jewelry. In high school and college, I moved into working with wood and acrylic. My current offerings are inspired by my interest in mid-century design and my passion for working with my hands. My furniture constructed from steel incorporating richly hued woods, making each piece unique and personal to the person who will use it. My techniques are my own. I am self taught in the processes I use to produce my designs: metalworking, powder coating, woodworking, staining, spray finishing and assembling objects that are at once beautiful, functional and fun.

Jinsheng Wang — Brooklyn, NY   |   wangjinshengstudio.com

Designers intuitively know that fasteners are crucial components in design and agree that where they put the fastener will alter the form and aesthetics of their designs. With these chairs, the fastener is the focus to reassert its integrity as a prime element; it is no longer subordinate to form, function and fashion, but the linchpin of the design. These experiments highlight fasteners' integral role in design and ask designers, with such an abundant market of specialized mechanisms, where they should conserve and exert their ingenuity. In the original Dovetail line, prefabricated fasteners, cable ties, rope, E-Z pulls and suction cups, were found first and triggered improvisational experiments. This spontaneous approach is utilitarian. It focuses on the making and the flexibility countless, accessible fasteners offer. The transparency of the chairs helps clarify their places of stress. These chairs are de-mystifyingly plain.