I was contacted recently by a woodworking magazine called DRVO, based in Zagreb, Croatia, about an article they wanted to write about me and my custom furniture.  They ran a two page article in their September (Rujan) issue.  The magazine is distributed in Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Macedonia and Slovenia.

Interestingly, the names of the months of the year in Croatian have several references to wood in their translations.  According to Wikipedia the Croatian name of the month of January (Siječanj) translates as “month of cutting wood”.  Svibanj (May) translates as “month of budding”.  Svibanj is from the word Svibovina, which is the word for the Cornel tree, or European dogwood.  Lipanj (June) translates as “month of the lipa” (lime/linden tree).  And Rujan (September)?  “Month of animal mating”.

Here is the article below.

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One of my end table designs, the Sugar Maple Taffy Table, was featured in the September-October 2011 issue of Design New England magazine.  The table features aprons and carved legs made from FSC certified sustainably harvested Vermont sugar maple (hard maple), and a birdseye Vermont sugar maple top. I have made this design in the past in other wood combinations like cherry with a birdseye maple top and cherry with a curly sassafras top.  This winter I will build a new one in walnut with a curly sassafras top, which will be available for sale through my website when it is completed.  I have also made larger hall table versions of this design.

Below is the magazine feature.  Click the images to enlarge.

Visit the end tables section of my website for more information and other photos of this table.

This past summer I had the honor to find out that my work was selected to be included in special informational panels used in an exhibit on the “History of Woodworking in Vermont, 1791 – Today”.  The panels include a section on contemporary woodworkers.  A photo of one of my carved cherry spoons is featured, along with a quote.  The photo used in the panels is featured below.  The exhibit is a project of the Vermont Wood Products Marketing Council, and will be displayed at special events throughout Vermont and New England.  The council is the primary force behind the marketing and promotion of the “Vermont Quality Wood Products” tree logo, which is the seal of quality for wood products made in Vermont.

I make all of my spoons from sustainably harvested Vermont cherry, and finish them with a non-toxic, food-safe, paste wax finish that I make from mineral oil and local Vermont bees wax.  Click the highlighted text to see other examples of my carved wood spoons and cooking spatulas. I welcome special orders, and can make the spoons in any size from tiny to ladle size.

From the History of Vermont Woodworking exhibit panels

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I’ve been meaning to post some photos from a gallery exhibit I did in July.  I showed my handmade furniture with paintings by my friend Renee Bouchard of Bennington, Vermont at Towle Hill Studio in Corinth, Vermont.

I had never shown my work exclusively with paintings before, and Renee had never shown her work with furniture.  It seemed to work really well, and it was interesting to see how the whole show came together as we hung the show.  I loved seeing my furniture with Renee’s work.  Different vignettes of paintings and furniture emerged, and it was interesting for both of us to see common threads in how our work related, whether through color, pattern, texture or forms.

Renee works in a really great variety of different materials.  She uses oil paints, watercolor, pen and ink, graphite, acrylics, metallic powders, and even little elements of collage in some pieces.  I really admire the fact that she pushes herself to explore all these different materials, and approaches taking creative risks fearlessly.

Renee had her work for this show reviewed in Art New England magazine!  It’s a nice review, and features a photo of one of her paintings.

I completed a new Large Walnut Taffy Mirror for this show.  It is 38″ wide x 23″ high x 2″ deep.  I will post it on my website soon, but for now a photo of it is featured below.

Special thanks to Mark and Lora Nielsen, owners and organizers of Towle Hill Studio and it’s annual series of artist exhibits, and to Jamie Franklin, for his curatorial expertise and patience in helping hang the show and all the many details leading up to it.

Here are the photos from the show:

(click images to enlarge)

Postcard for the show

State of Craft Console Table; paintings left to right: Parting of the Red Sea; Baptism; Luxe, calm, et volupté

Funky Shaker Hall Table and Yellow Taffy Lamp; paintings left to right: Monk; Woman and Child

"Luxe, Calm, et Volupte" - featured in Art New England magazine

Magic Swirling Ship

Self-Portrait as Madonna; Large Walnut Taffy Mirror

Cherry and Ash Console Table and Cherry Taffy Lamp; paintings left to right: Thaw; No Birds, No leaves, No Sun, November!

Poodle Table; paintings left to right: Primordial Landscape; Apotheosis of the Bird I Killed

Man of the Mountain; Three-Faced Man

Haviland's Privilege; Self-Portrait as Madonna

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www.Renee-Bouchard.com

Three weeks ago I completed a new outdoor bench in white oak for the Montshire Museum of Science in Norwich, Vermont. The commission to build this custom, handmade bench came about through a collaboration of the Montshire Museum and the Frog Hollow Vermont State Craft Center in Burlington. The two organizations issued a call for design proposals from members of the Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers and Frog Hollow. Five designs by five different Vermont-based furniture makers were selected, including mine.

The benches were exhibited at the Frog Hollow Gallery in Burlington in May, and then last week they were transported to Norwich, where they are being installed along the pathways of the Museum’s Woodland Garden, which showcases native and medicinal plants.

I built the bench in locally grown white oak. All of the hardware (not visible unless you crawl under the thing) is stainless steel: stainless metal bars recessed into the underside of the seat to support it, and heavy duty stainless levelers under each leg, with delrin glides. The levelers are adjustable so the bench will sit flat on any surface, and also raise it up enough so that the wood will not sit directly on wet surfaces or dirt.

The leg forms of the bench are hand carved and are connected by a thick cross-stretcher that runs underneath the seat and is joined to the leg forms by double mortice and tenons at each end.

The finish is Penofin Verde, an eco-firendly, non-toxic natural oil finish made for outdoor use. The bench is 18″ high x 48″ wide x 18″ deep. I can also build this design in other woods and in other sizes.

Here’s a few photos of the bench:

(click to enlarge)

Outdoor Bench - carved white oak

And here are a few photos of the shaping and carving of the leg forms of the bench:

Leg form before carving - four layers of white oak stack laminated to 6.75" thick

www.DavidHurwitzOriginals.com

Back during the winter I had the opportunity to design and build a fun new piece: a custom, contemporary coat rack in carved and painted cherry.  It was the ideal commission.  It was a piece for some folks who had previously commissioned a custom piece from me (a small Taffy Mirror on stand).  They have been really great to work with.  For this coat rack, the criteria was very open.  It had to be wall mounted and had to fit within a 48″ wide space.  Beyond that they wanted me to let my imagination run free.  Wow, the dream clients!!  Their criteria was this: “design something that would be so exciting that we would spend all our time in the front hall admiring it and never want to hang a coat on it”.

Here’s some photos below, of what I came up with.  It ended up becoming a wall sculpture, where it’s function is not immediately obvious, but yet still does the job of being able to hang coats on it.  The two things I wanted to avoid in designing it were literal pegs or hooks as most people are used to seeing, and I wanted the way it is attached to the wall to be totally hidden, rather than having exposed screw holes in the front or metal tabs sticking up along the top edge.  Each of the crests of the curves in the carving stick out from the wall and act as hooks to hang the coats on.  I used 3 inch thick cherry for this piece, so the hooks stick out from the wall enough.  To hang the rack on the wall, I used two concealed clips that are set into the back and clip over two wall anchors.  Visually, I also wanted this piece to be asymmetrical, and have a feeling of motion.

The cherry used in this piece is FSC certified sustainably harvested, and came from Adirondack Hardwoods, in Saranac, NY.

(Click the images to enlarge):

Carved and Painted Cherry Coat Rack

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What is a maker of handcrafted furniture in Vermont doing in the blogosphere?

Hi folks,

Welcome to my brand new blog!  Special thanks to my web designer John DiGeorge of Good Bear Productions for designing and setting up the blog.  Thanks also to Sustainable Forest Futures for providing a matching grant that covered half of the cost of setting up the blog.

So the question, “What is a maker of handcrafted furniture in Vermont doing in the blogosphere?”  While I always prefer to be in my shop making stuff, I am starting this blog as a way to share more details about my work and the process of creating it, beyond what can be shown on my website.  I am always keeping my website current (www.davidhurwitzoriginals.com), with updates of new work, upcoming shows, press coverage, etc., but this blog will allow me to go a little more in depth, and show you things like pieces in progress, shows I’m doing, special projects, and things that inspire me.  I will also try to cover some broader issues, like sustainable forestry and green finishes, and maybe stuff about tools and machinery if there is interest out there.  I’m also open to requests for things to blog about, so if there is something in particular about my work you want to know more about, please don’t hesitate to email me or post a comment here.

A quick update on what I’m working on now:  I’m busy working on several different commissions of custom furniture pieces.  I’m finishing up an 8 foot long writing desk and a dining table in cherry with a round glass top.  The top is 1/2″ thick dark gray tinted glass, and sits on a contemporary cherry base.  I will post photos of them soon.  I’m also starting a carved and painted cherry coat rack that is similar to the carved forms of my Taffy Mirrors.  It will be a fun, very sculptural piece.  I have several other commissions in the works that I will be building in the coming months.  I will write more about them once I start them.

If you are looking for quality, contemporary, handcrafted furniture, very well made to last several generations, please take a look at my website.  I am always interested in designing and building custom pieces, so if you have something in mind you are interested in, please give me a call or email me and let’s talk.  New to the process of buying custom furniture?  Take a look at the purchasing page on my website for more info on how the process of commissioning a custom piece works, and take a look at the testimonials page to see what my past customers are saying.

Here’s a few photos of a new large mirror design.  Thanks for reading; stayed tuned for more.

Cheers, David

(click images to enlarge)

Open Frame Taffy Mirror in carved cherry

www.DavidHurwitzOriginals.com