CFDA Newsletter

Program Schedules:

May 8 - Dolly Spragins: My Work.
Dolly is not a newcomer to the organization. We have benefited from her experience in the Form Follows Form Show. Her background includes training as an opera singer and her work shows the influence of a broad exposure to the arts.

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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CFDA Meeting Report:

CFDA Minutes - April 10,2007

Meeting called to order at 6:56 PM

IDSA Show:

The committee (Chris Brandel, Sean Scott, Dolly Spragin, Helen Maria Nugent) met with IDSA group. The show theme that was agreed to is "Deceptive Furniture" The group wants the name to be a little vague. The theme includes process as well as construction details. Other ideas explored included:

• Limit idea to $100 cost
• Limit ideas to one department in a store

Target date for the show is around Nov. 2007, close to the time of the SOFA show. We are no longer talking about pairing up with individuals from the IDSA but about focusing on the "process". We will work separately but side by side. Go ahead and team up with someone if you want to. If you have any ideas about Deceptive Furniture Show send them to the show committee. The committee is still looking for sponsors and for a venue.

Morton Arboretum/ Ash Borer Show

Thursday there will be a meeting with the Morton Arboretum to discuss the Ash wood utilization show. We are looking also for other venues to take the show as a traveling show. Bill First and John Kriegshauser will talk with the Cultural Center re show time in 2008. Wilmette is interested also.

The Newsletter is looking great. The member profiles are great feature. Write your own and get them in to Rob ASAP please.

Rob asked if there is a practical length for the newsletter? What is the most important content? Several ideas were mentioned:

• Variety of interest items - e.g. new tools, national or regional meetings
• Activities supporting the Mission statement
• Broader issues than just furniture
• Sources of material - links and info on good suppliers

Encourage use of the Yahoo group to spread this info. (Note: The Yahoo group is easy to access. Go to Yahoo.com Then go to the groups and search for members)

• Book reviews
• Member profiles
• Use it to promote meeting attendance.

Announcement:

Matt Speer
Has bench space opening up in May. $700.00/month
Shop is located on the Oak Park/ Berwyn Border
Gallery, shop and some out door space.
Equipment and utilities included.
Call Matt @ 708-655-0861

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CFDA Executive Board Meeting Minutes - April 18,2007

In attendance: Chris Brandel, Lloyd Natof, John Kriegshauser, Rob Frazier, Matt Speer, Jamie Stevens

1. Officer Reports

Treasurer
-Lloyd and Jamie still have not reconciled 2006.
-Do we need to file documents with secretary of State so as not to lose our not for profit status? JK will contact Burt Engelberg.
-Pradeep owes $250 for dues and show fees. JK will contact him.
-Lloyd will alphabetize the membership list by last names.

Membership
-The surveys did not provide much information for us. JK says he thinks that we need to look to the board and officers to provide leadership and direction, not the rank and file.
-Lloyd will contact Tim and Barry to check progress on the membership packet.
We have two new members.

Newsletter
-We will ask Judith to keep tabs on the number of times the newsletter is viewed on the website.
-Reviews of furniture design books and book recommendations would make a good addition to the newsletter. Everyone should write something recommending their favorite(s) or pointing out bad ones others should avoid.

Website
-We still need to link our website with others, not just the Furniture Society's website.

Meeting Programs
-Proposals for future meeting programs:

Mark Steffaneigel--interior architecture

Lyon and Healy tour

Bretford Tour

Glass Studio Tour (in cooler weather)

Holly Hunt showrooms

Finkl Steel

Yahoo Group
No new members have joined the yahoo group.
Use the yahoo group to share photos of recent work.
Matt thinks this group will become central to communication for the next shows.

2. Aesthetic Eye Gallery
They had been looking to move into Lee Weitzman's old space but wanted the CFDA to rent the basement. It's a moot point now because the space has been rented by someone else.
Chris, Matt and Lloyd all thought that managing a gallery, with all the people and business hassles that entails, would best be left to someone other than the CFDA.

3. Report on the Show with IDSA
Theme--the show will be called "Deceptive Furniture" which could mean visual or functional deception, furniture that converts into something else, hidden compartments, materials that look like other materials, etc. All entries would be expected to show the design and/or construction process.

Venue
We need to find a location for next November that can hold 25-50 pieces.

JK and Bill First need to contact the CCC

West Loop auction house?

Workhouse?--Scott Sonoc--Chris will contact

Merchandise Mart?

Function Art?--Maybe Scott Patria can recommend something?

Lyon and Healy?--Chris will contact

Columbia College?

Art Institute?

-Before dates can be established, pieces solicited or publicity circulated a venue must be found.
-A show committee needs to be established to organize this show.

4. Report on Ash Borer/Morton Arboretum Show
-We have a gallery space 40' x 30' indoors and a covered exterior space, maybe 10' x 40'.
-The show will be in August and September of 2008.
-The theme will be the Ash Borer and the furniture will all employ ash in some form.
-The Arboretum wants to have weekend events along the theme of the show to interest the crowds and gain publicity.
-We need to put together a committee to organize this show.

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Member Profile:
Barry Newstat

I began woodworking in 7 th grade in Industrial Arts class. I always liked making stuff, even as a kid. Ironically, I hated woodworking; I found it tedious and frustrating. But I was fascinated with the lathe. Each student in the class was given a chunk of mahogany to turn, and I was hooked. Soon after that my dad bought me a Rockwell lathe (I still use it in my shop). We'd buy lumber from around the world at Craftsman Wood Service on the south side, so my fascination with the wood itself started at an early age. I think as a result, my design process is a bit backward. Most of my work evolves from a specific piece of wood rather than designing first and finding the wood to build the piece later.

I began as a self-employed furniture maker in August, 1987. My first project though was not furniture, it was building kitchen cabinets for a friend who was rehabbing buildings in Chicago. I made enough money to buy enough equipment to start my own shop and quit my teaching job. I had a few more kitchen cabinet jobs in my first year, both were lucrative enough (barely!) to keep me in business. Within a few years I was making only furniture and had enough word of mouth business to move from my garage to a bigger space at Damen and Carroll on the west side.

The focus of my work for most of my career has been hand craftsmanship. I'm mostly self-taught, and I think as a result my skill development has been slow. But I've also been lucky, I've had three or four repeat clients who have not only been generous, but have encouraged me to push myself and try new things. On my own, I think I'm too conservative. With only one or two exceptions, my most interesting work has been commissions for these clients. I feel like I'm finally hitting my stride, in my 20 th year of furniture.

Even with these great clients, I tried for a long time to eliminate commissions and work only on speculative work for galleries and shows. But as difficult as it was to admit, my spec pieces didn't sell well. So I've come full circle and decided to not make spec pieces for a while, but instead concentrate on finding new clients and develop a more consistent flow of work. I sell my spec work through galleries in Aspen, CO and in Door County and through Sawbridge in Chicago and Winnetka. Most of my work for Sawbridge has been orders from existing work. Even they rarely sell my spec work. So my goal for the next year is to learn to market my work, accept any projects that are interesting and gradually go back to developing a body of work which is more creative (and risky?) than anything I've done in the past.

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Meeting Program:
Bridgette Buckley: My Work.

photo by Rob Winkler

Bridgette received her undergraduate education at the University of Colorado in architecture, and graduate education in interior design at the Art Institute of Chicago, followed by a fellowship in Denmark and work experience, both free lance and with a kitchen design company. She is now designing for Holly Hunt.

She has always been intrigued by what can be done with construction materials at hand or commercially available - such as wood palettes, electrical conduit, MDF, OSB, plywood sheets, or Plexiglass. Her designs reflect a straight forward, no frills approach to the construction of practical furniture. She showed slides covering the whole span of her educational as well as professional work which provided a fascinating glimpse into her growth and development as an artist and crafts person. Her portfolio ran the gamut from trivets and a chopping block, to small tables, gift boxes, magazine rack, ottoman, benches, counter designs for galleries, mobile living units, and high-end dining chairs she is now doing for Holly Hunt, not to forget the model for a child care center which was her starting point as a student of architecture. Pictures of a portion of her oeuvre follow

photo by Kris Drake

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Apropros of Inconvenient Truths:
This news item heard at a meeting in Toronto was forwarded by Julie Thompson:

In October 2004 I happened to be sitting beside a film maker while flying from Vancouver to Toronto.

The fellow's name is Mark Leiren-Young, and he was telling me about some problems he was having with a film production that dealt with the destruction of forests. To make a long story short I ended up becoming a Technical Advisor for the project, and a new character (named John Marshall) was also created with a story line that is loosely based on some experiences from my own life. The story of K'iid K'iyaas - the sacred Golden Spruce on Haida Gwaii that was felled by an eco-vandal in 1997 - is also integrated into the John Marshall monologue in the film. The film is called "The Green Chain" and it is now complete, awaiting release.

In my opinion this movie is "The Inconvenient Truth" about what's happening to our forests. And what I like best about the film is that it gives an equal voice to EVERYONE who has an interest connected to the forest, from the logger and company executives to environmentalists, social activists and indigenous peoples.

Below are links to a blogspot, a website and a myspace.com site.

http://greenchain.blogspot.com/

http://www.myspace.com/thegreenchainmovie

www.thegreenchain.com

Please check this out, and help generate some pre-release interest in this film by passing this info along to friends and people you know.

The film does some heavy FREE promo for FSC as well, so the more people that know about this the better.

Signed "John"

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