CFDA Newsletter

Program Schedules:

January 9 - Lloyd Natof: Building a Collection of Speculative Pieces
Lloyd has, as many of us know from e-mailed invitations, taken off six months from his regular business to focus exclusively on creating a collection of speculative designs. In addition to presenting a slideshow of the pieces, he will talk about how he planned, financed and promoted this collection. Many of us know the fantasy. Lloyd will tell us how he actually did it.

February 13 - Jan Sopoci: "Everybody likes my work; why can't I sell shit?" or "Things they didn't tell you in art school".
Prepare yourself to hear the voice of experience in plain English! Jan is a charter member of the CFDA and a furniture maker for years before the CFDA was invented. He has been there and done that, and he is prepared to share what he has learned.

March 13 - Bridgette Buckley: My Work.
Bridgette lived in Copenhagen prior to returning to Chicago in 2005 and is currently designing for the Holly Hunt Collection as well as creating her own furniture and artwork. She also teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and got involved with the CFDA just prior to the Form Follows Form show. This is a chance to get acquainted with Bridgette and her work.

April 10 - What Have You Been Doing?
Come share what you've been working on and learn what everyone else has been doing. Bring pictures, models, details and questions; it's show and tell!

May 8 - Dolly Spragins: My Work.
Dolly is not exactly a new member, but we know her more from her efforts promoting the Form Follows Form show than from her work. And her piece in that show indicates that she's capable of the unusual. This is a chance to see more.

June 9 - Bruce Horigan: Urban Forest Products. (This is a Saturday Morning!!)
This will be a tour of Bruce's saw mill, dry kiln and lumber shed, an explanation of his business and a wonderful opportunity to spend a Saturday morning in the emerging suburbs!

July 10 - Lisa Elkins: My Work.
Lisa is another nearly new member. She currently teaches at UIC as a day job, and as we all saw at the Form Follows Form show, she is an accomplished designer. Let's see more.

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Announcement from CFDA President - Chris Brandel

    Hello Everyone! Well, if you're reading this, then you know we have some great news! The Newsletter format has been updated and I have to say, I think it looks Great ! Thanks to Judith Diasselliss, we have a modern, snappy format which gives us some great opportunities.     The plans for the newsletter are ambitious and we will need help getting it up to speed and keeping it going.
    One of the new features is a member profile every month, which will highlight the talents and accomplishments of one of our members so they can use it for their own publicity. How great is that to send out to your clients?
    Rob will do his best, but perhaps you might want to ask a friend to help write yours and give Rob a head start or let him in on some of the things you are doing.
   Another section will be articles from our members. Don't be hesitant to submit, even if it's just a short essay on what you've been researching lately...We need your help developing a stockpile of items to publish.
    Some other areas will be notes on upcoming shows or events related to the design field. If you know of something, send a note to get it in there.
    I think the overall image of this new format really portrays the qualities and talents of all of our members and, well-- I think that this gives us,each member the CFDA, the opportunity to do some great things for ourselves and the group, and just like everything else, it's what we do with our opportunities that we get to look back on.

Let's help Rob get this thing full !

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Announcement - Yahoo Groups Sign Up

Sign up for the CFDA Members Yahoo Group

The CFDA Members Yahoo group is now up and running. This site is where communication for the CFDA is headed. We will still have the monthly Newsletter for general info, but the Yahoo groups is where the good stuff is at.

The CFDA Board decided to set this group up with the goal of improving communication between members, offering a centralized location for CFDA information, reducing the amount of ancillary e-mails during show preparations, and to keep the doors of discussion open between general meeting dates.

The following is a brief guide on how to become a member and how to use the group site.

To start, look in your past e-mails...all members should have received an invitation to join the group. It was from cbrndl@yahoo.com . If you still have it, then follow the instructions in it. If it was deleted or filtered by some spam software, don't worry, you can still be part of the hype.

Step 1. Go to Yahoo's main page: http://www.yahoo.com/

Select the Groups button as shown below.

Step 2. Search for the CFDA Members Group.

Step 3. Select the cfdamembers group and it will take you to the main page.

Step 4. Hit the "JOIN NOW" button in the upper right hand corner.

Step 5. If you have a yahoo account, use that to sign in, if you don't have one, you can create one, or send me an e-mail asking me to send you an invitation to you regular account.

Once signed in, fill out this page:

Be sure to select the appropriate message delivery. I've chosen to get the Daily Digest. This compiles the messages of the day only if there have been additions and sends them out in one nicely condensed e-mail...no more in-box overload!

Step 6. Submit the request and I'll get notified that you want to join. Please note that I am not always able to check my e-mails everyday, so please be patient. I'll get you in....trust me, we want you to be a part of this.

Yes, it is that easy.

Now, once you are a member, what can you do?

Well, there are plenty of things. You can post messages for everyone to see, add events you know about to the calendar (Meeting dates have already been entered), set up members polls, get important files such as the website template file, or the current phone list, set up informational databases to share with other members. Who knows, maybe you'll find a use that will help us all out. Try it, and see.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at cbrndl@yahoo.com

Sincerely,
Chris Brandel
CFDA President.

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CFDA Meeting Report:
December 12th

Meeting opened 7:00 PM
President's report:
The newsletter is up and running thanks to Rob and Judith. Is anyone not getting the link to the newsletter? Please contact Lloyd if you know someone who isn't linked. One part of the newsletter will be Biographies and /or articles which will help us get to know each other and spread information and knowledge for the good of the group.
Please submit these to Rob < rgfrazier@mac.com >.
Everyone is challenged to write up something for the newsletter (send pictures also).

We have a great amount of talent and knowledge in this group. By sharing this we can all grow together.

Treasure's Report:
Lloyd is cleaning the rolls and is trying to determine who is truly active. Active members: Please pay your dues. Lloyd will forward the current active / non active list to John Kriegshauser for posting on the website. The current bank balance is $4400.00.

Membership Committee:
They are developing a survey to find out why people are or are not active.

PR Committee:
A free lance writer is interested in writing about the group and or individuals. The committee will get more information and get back to the group.

Shows Committee:
Chris is talking with the chairperson for the IDSA regarding a joint show. An IIT show is possible for 2008. The committee is continuing to work on shows. Does anyone have ideas for the show theme?

-Sustainable/Green might be a good tie-in.
-Restrictive style show, i.e. what can be done with a set amount of material.
-Fed Ex Box show. For chairs or should we try a separate show?
-Charity Auction.

Our goal is to have 2 shows per year and we hope to have both planned by February.
This will be discussed at the Jan. Board meeting.
Dolly will e-mail members for input.

Venues and Shows to look at:

Hyde Park Art Center - 5020 S. Cornell Ave. Chicago
Thomas Shiner in Washington, DC
Biedermeier Furniture show at Milwaukee Art Institute.
Extension Gallery in Pilsen on Halsted, south of 18 th street. The current show, Architecture from Around theWorld, is running through early February, 2007.

Form Follows Function show items.
Extra posters are now in Rob's possession.
There is also a list of people who signed up to be on the e-mail list from the show.
These names will be put on the Yahoo groups and on the mailing list.

Respectfully submitted.
Bruce Horigan

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Meeting Program:
by Bruce Horigan

Gonzalo Rodgiguez - a new member, comes from Detroit where he has developed an extensive and diverse body of work over the past 10 years. He presented a number of slides of work done as well as some portfolios containing drawings of concepts realized in the photos and some ideas in progress. Gonzalo plans to continue using his shop in Detroit for the manufacture of his furniture, it would be difficult to match the space rentals for similar space here in Chicago. He will do designing, and marketing from here.

Gonzalo has a Bachelor of Arts in Industrial Design from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. He received a number of merit scholarships and since graduation has been recognized in several national publications. He has done a variety of residential commissions, commercial contracts and public installations. In addition he has taught Classes in Furniture Design, and Product and Design Theory, at both the College for Creative Studies and at Wayne State University, and has been in several gallery and trade shows.

Click here to view his very interesting and impressive CFDA presentation.

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Member Profile:
Bruce Horigan

Starting this month the Newsletter will post a brief bio of one of our members to make it easier for us to not only get to know the members but also to give each of us a better idea of the combined talent and experience available.
This month we begin with our Secretary, Bruce Horigan, who is present at every meeting, but is also at the beginning of the woodworking process. Bruce, along with his wife, Erika, own and operate a sawmill, Horigan Urban Forest Products, Inc. which is located in the Chicago area – currently in Mundelein on Aptakisic Rd. The company specializes in taking trees cut in the Chicago area for landscaping or urban development reasons and milling and kiln drying the lumber for use in building homes and furniture. It is a matter of pride for Bruce that all this high quality hardwood lumber is from a sustainable resource – the urban forest. An example of the service to environmentally sustainable building is their reuse of the many trees damaged in Washington Park by the severe windstorm in November. He cited figures that indicate that if the nation’s urban forest timber were efficiently recycled it could supply about 40% of the hardwood lumber needs for home and furniture building in the U.S. (The Newsletter editor learned yesterday that Wilmette is going to take down some 2000 dead or dying ash trees.)

The company has a long inventory of wood species in storage in its warehouse, and a computerized system to aid cataloging and retrieval. For updates on stock available call
847-729-1023.