CFDA Newsletter

Announcements:

TUESDAY, APRIL 14: INNOVATIONS IN HARDWARE
by the HAEFELE CORPORATION

PLEASE NOTE!!
This meeting will take place at the Haefele showroom (151 W. Grand) near the Merchandise Mart - not at Corosh - beginning promptly at 6:00 p.m. and will include dinner and drinks. You may expect to receive an invitation by email in the next week or two.
Your RSVP will be required.

Almost all of us are aware of the Haefele brand and its quality, innovative cabinet and furniture hardware. Here is the opportunity to see these products in action instead of searching a catalog or website.

May's program will be a forum about the magazines we as custom furniture designer/makers read and value. Matt Seiler has agreed to be on the panel directing the discussion, but it would be great to have three people. Could you talk about magazines aimed at our profession?

June's Program will be about built in Cabinets. Lloyd Natof and Matt Seiler both have a great deal of experience in this area, but we could use a third panelist. Could you share some pearls on this subject?

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CFDA Meeting Report:

CFDA Minutes - Board Meeting March 10, 2009

Nineteen regular members and four guests in attendance.

The meeting began at 7:05 with our Vice President, Dolly Spragins, calling the meeting to order. President Chris Brandel was out sick.

Per the recent developments, the Rising From Ashes show will not be going to Florida. But on April 18th it a portion of it will be going to Glenview, and on April 25th some of it will be going to Elgin. Both of those shows are local outreaches to promote awareness of the EAB, of urban wood, and of the CFDA show.

The Chicago Green Tech center has asked that we retrieve the pieces from the show on April 24th and 25th. Details about whether this show will be picked up en masse or if we each have to individually collect our pieces will be forthcoming. Look for emails in the next few weeks with these details.

Per Dwayne Sperber, the RFA show's visit with the Milwaukee Fine Furniture and Furnishings show is going well. The dates are September 25, 26 and 26 and we'll need a day on the front and back sides for setup and tear down. Reportedly all but three pieces from the main show will be going.

With respect to the other aspect of the Milwaukee show, where we're in an aggregated booth space, a formal application for the jurying process will be forthcoming shortly, but will have a MAY 1 DEADLINE. Besides buying square footage in the booth, your application dollars will also purchase your individual maker's page in the show's brochure. Happily, the CFDA isn't going to get 'block' coverage, but rather each of our participating members will be seen.

While displaying in the booth, the expectation is that the self-promotion will be uniform, with print handouts, cards and business cards being the norm.

And the theme of this year's Milwaukee show is "The Wonderful World of Wine" in case any participating members have any thoughts on how to tie that into the design and theme of your for-sale furniture.

Per Dolly and Bruce, the RFA show received publicity in China (!). Ironic, as that's where the EAB originated from.

http://www.cnchairs.com/news/show.php?id=440&sort=america

Dolly introduced Dan Diewald, who is heading up the efforts to navigate us into the Neocon show at the Merchandise Mart. Reportedly there are twenty people who have expressed an interest in sharing the 400 square feet that we're being granted. In addition to this space, the Mart is also considering a reduced rate for extra room (which is normally $4,300 for a 10X10 foot area). Dan will be providing more details on this.

With an expected attendance of between 40-50,000 people this represents quite a balloon of exposure for a three-day show. And with the quick deadline, things will need to be put into motion exceptionally quickly. To that end, Antanas Abraitis, Bill First and Bruce Horigan expressed interest in being on the show committee with Dan, and their efforts kicked off within 48 hours of this meeting. John Kriegshauser mentioned that he thinks he's in possession of the CFDA sign, which would need to be freshened up if needed.

The business meeting concluded at 7:30

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Program:
David Orth - The Ceremonial Aspect of Objects: Design for Transition

David Orth has been working as a designer, woodworker and metalworker since 1976. Like many designers and makers, he has found a niche for himself and a voice in his designs. One of David's niches takes him well beyond modern design issues into questions of personal and social transition. A satisfying portion of his business revolves around personal, corporate, and religious ceremonial objects.

In his initial explorations he discovered that thoughtful, handmade items already lent themselves well to these more specifically transitional or ceremonial needs. People with these kinds of needs naturally gravitate to craft studios. For example, when he was located in Oak Park he would occasionally get walk-in's requesting cremation urns from people transitioning through periods of loss. David realized that these people were working through very complex processes of loss, memory, tribute, and rearrangement. Both they, and the design work, required a high degree of understanding and care.

Ceremonial objects are not necessarily about ritual, but they are always about transition. It required a shift in David's thinking in order to honor the work and the thoroughly human elements involved. He realized that rather than applying the 'form follows function' paradigm, here the object has to be more. Sometimes a lot more.

He described his early work as mostly functional - nice boxes for the ashes. But by the third and fourth requests, which happened concurrently, he began having a broader range of design questions. He took things well past the usual, and into the worlds of meaning, psychology, humanity and all of the other 'messy stuff', as he put it.

Urns are containers - but containers for more than ashes. They are a form of protection, a form of containment. They were a portal or doorway between the past and the future. And so began his exploration into, not only the execution of better designs, but into the spiritual and social realms of the work and its connection to the world around him.

David shared catalog images of commercial, factory made urns. And, predictably, they were tacky, sterile and bore a good resemblance to shiny new canopic jars. And they weren't cheap. He realized that he could do more, and do better.

Then David shared some images of his urns. A tower sculpture, hammer veneered in sapele pommelle, was quite striking. And a second, formed as a sort of a half arch and veneered in wood began to redirect his designer's eye. A third was the same general form as the second, but made from bronze. As he continued his search, he noticed that highly refined surfaces sometimes communicated the wrong thing. Too much polish somehow communicated a level of concern with the static object that was not conducive to the human process. For this reason ceremonial objects are often unrefined and do not announce their materiality or artfulness. The coarseness of their physical appearance actually helps to soften the transitions, and by analogy, accompanies people through the messier aspects of life.

The next slides included an altar, a candle holder (A Hiroshima memorial lit from the flames of the original blast, no less!), both Judaic and Christian sacred objects as well as a tall bronze piece that was to be a corporate award. Who says that ceremony is exclusively the domain of the religious? A corporate award can help carry forward feelings of mystery, humor, and gratitude, too.

What drives this level and quality is David's developing understanding of the What and the Why of his work. The What is a matter of manual dexterity and innate creativity. The Why delves into somewhat more complicated areas.

He has to have empathy, to feel for the client. But he has to have objectivity in order to avoid the trap of sentimentality. These must be paired with both wit and soul, to bring a sense of good design to the process. And he must have a good grasp of the archeology of objects to understand what they are and where they came from. And finally he must bring a sort of re-enchantment to the physical objects, even in our 21st century. In his application what he's making are shamanic objects - of course, that's if we can get past the 'design' to the greater, messier questions of human life precariously perched on the edge of our world.

Through this presentation he mentioned that he is moving past the traditional debate about craft vs art, to find more of a sweet spot between them - a sweet spot between form and function. This intersection, he says, is where the soul of the piece lives. And in order to find that soul he has to have, as he puts it, a barefoot state of mind. He has to be open to feeling everything on his journey of exploration and he must understand that object making is deeply anthropological, and even mystical.

He doesn't want the craft to be too refined, because he doesn't want the observer to fixate on the object itself. Rather he hopes the viewer is carried forward in their own process. The objects he's making are human objects. They have a rhythm, they have imperfections and they have soul.

David's presentation ended at 8:45 to a quiet pause and then applause all around.

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Member Profile
Nevin Peters

I am a designer and craftsperson taking custom commissions and running an artisans shop in Berwyn. The focus of my work is to explore the juxtaposition of the organic warmth of wood with spare architectural forms. Each piece is handcrafted, and is an embodiment of the powerful and complex relationship we have both to technology and to the natural world. Wherever possible, sustainably harvested lumber and finishes with minimal environmental impact are used.

contact:
Nevin Peters
708-484-4820
nevin@npwoodworking.com
www.npwoodworking.com