CFDA Newsletter

Announcements:

Our next meeting will take place on Tuesday, February 9, - 6:30pm
Goose Island Brewery in the Bier Stube room
1800 N. Clybourn.

First Sustainable Committee Meeting
Tues, Feb 9 at Goose Island Brewery - 5:30 pm.

Our March meeting will take place on March 16, the third Tuesday of the month instead of the second.

Program Schedule:

January: Green Depot Sustainable Products
Jamie Stevens is arranging for us to meet at the Green Depot and they will present their lines of sustainable products with emphasis on those relevant to furniture making. Location and details will follow.

February: Primordial Design
David Orth - Aboriginal peoples & other non-western cultures have generated much striking and enigmatic design. How can we understand and learn from this today?

March: Current Thinking on Sustainable Furniture
Lisa Elkins - Lisa has stayed abreast of the latest developments in the production of sustainable furniture. This is your chance to be informed.

April: Chippendale and Rococo
Lloyd Natof - Who knew that Lloyd was keen on this period? I can't wait to hear what he has to say!

May: Turning: From Craft to Art Form
Richard Dlugo - Over the last 50 years turning has evolved from a folksy craft into an art from that appeals to serious collectors. Richard will chart how this has come about.

June: The Latest Photo Manipulation Software - Bill First
Bill will demonstrate how this latest software enables new possibilities for digital image enhancement.

Unscheduled Programs:
- Dolly on the furniture of Ruhlmann: date to be determined
- Dolly's friend the plane maker: The intricacies of hand plane making and using revealed by a former student of James Krenov, who, not surprisingly, is a meticulous and exacting woodworker.

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CFDA Meeting Report:

CFDA Minutes - January 12, 2010

This month's meeting location was held at the Green Depot, at 2500 N. Pulaski.      Green Depot hosted us with sandwiches and beverages and we were treated to a summary of the products that were in their retail showroom, followed by our business meeting.   Details of the tour, herein, will follow the business meeting minutes.

Dolly Spragins called the business meeting to order at 7:25, asking for old business

Bill First mentioned that he'd met with Sue about Tor Faegre's belongings.   She would like us to select a weekend day in March where we can troup over to their place and we can divvy up Tor's old wood, and then bring the remainder to a local trash dump.   The materials will be cheerfully given away, but she really needs to part with the material. There reportedly is a good selection of twigs, wood, metal and bamboo.    The exact details are TBA, but Bill seems to be the locus for this effort right now.

John reminded us that we're still looking for a good memorial for Tor. So far an inscribed plaque or a bench, to be placed in one of his favorite outdoor nature preserves, is the most viable option.

The Furniture Society show, to be held in mid-June of this year at MIT, will host a selected few pieces from our Rising From Ashes show. John and Dolly will be attending the show and will be selecting and driving the pieces to Cambridge, Mass.   They intend to bring the video as well as the preserved log as an educational device.

Bruce reminded Dolly (and informed the rest of us) that there is very specific paperwork that will need to be filled out in order to transport that preserved EAB log out of the quarrantine area.   Without the supporting paperwork there is the exposure for a sizable fine for transporting it.

As of the time of the meeting there were nineteen responses to the electronic-format survey of the members about the CFDA.   If you have not filled out this survey please contact Dolly.

We talked about upcoming show topics, which so far include:
    Bill First about Photoshop and digital manipulation of raw image format photos from digital cameras
    Kurt Vevang about the SketchUp CAD program
    Gary Venable about wooden block planes at large, and plane tuneups. This would be a fieldtrip meeting.
    John and Bridgette Buckley about midcentury Danish design

Dolly highlighted that our next show is going to be on the topic of sustainability, and we had seven hands raise when volunteers were called for for the beginnings of a show committee.     It will be up to the committee to define how tightly or loosely the definition of 'sustainability' will be, and we'll be getting more info as the group meets and susses out the details.

Our regular meeting place, Corosh, is still a big question mark. We're seeing definite signs that the venue is winding down and may close.   As of the meeting we talked about the possibilty of having the meetings at the Mart, although there are parking issues. Hafele is also on the table, but again, the same parking issues exist.   Since the meeting there has been some discussion of holding the meetings at Goose Island Brewery, which reportedly has a full menu and *might* be free to us. More info is yet to come about the details there.

Lastly, there is a new procedure for signing in at every one of our meetings. Recently we've discovered that our contact lists are incomplete and out of date.   We now have a formalized sign in sheet for each meeting. Even if you've done it before, we'll be asking every attendee to provide email and contact telephone info in addition to their signature.   This way we can ensure that we're being inclusive to as many attendees as possible with any updated information or email communications.

The business meeting concluded at 8:30

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Program:
GREEN DEPOT Tour

The Green Depot, at 2500 N. Pulaski, is a retail sales operation that caters to the environmentally minded designer and builder.Their entire business model revolves around providing recycled, environmentally friendly and low-VOC type products.

Mark Stolt lead us from flooring to countertop and cabinet solutions that bring unique materials and techniques to the party.Besides the ubiquitous bamboo, we also saw post-consumer recycled products made into hard flooring and carpeting products. Manmade stone veneer products were presented, along with an intriguing reuse of paper and resins into a 'paper stone' solid surface material.Recycled glass was displayed as attractive wall tile.

Insulation products shown were made from recycled blue jean denim. A skylight tube system was intriguing, as was a retro-fit option to limit the flush capacity on the average household toilet tank.

Low and NO VOC paints, varnishes and stains intrigued many.Their stain systems raised a few eyebrows. The mixing strategies were unique in their simplicity.

Being in the 'green' market also means that they can provide environmentally friendly household chemical products, as well as composting hardware.

For more information, please go to http://www.greendepot.com/greendepot. Not all of their products are listed on the website, but it should give you a good idea of the range of their products.

Many thanks go to Mark and the folks at Green Depot for hosting us for the evening.

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Exhibitions of note:

Brian Mock & Split Brow/Matthew Hoffman: New Sculpture and Functional Art pieces.
Feb. 5 - Mar. 11
360SEE Gallery
1924 N. Damen
Chicago

KNOCK-KNOCK: An exhibition of antique tribal doors.
Feb. 27 - Mar. 29
Douglas Dawson Gallery
400 N. Morgan
Chicago

Scott Burton
Art that blurs the boundaries between furniture and sculpture.
Ongoing
Bluhm Family Terrace at the Art Institute of Chicago
The meeting concluded at 8:20