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Category Archives: Furniture

Get Twiggy Wid It

15-Apr-07
Twig and Bark Picture Frame

About two hours north of Atlanta, in the mountains, is a nice resort called the Brasstown Valley Resort. It’s a beautiful place for conferences, golf, company meetings…or just to get away for a long weeknd.

We go there for special occasions, usually for one reason…the Friday night seafood buffet.

Ever since I first visited the place, I loved the decor. It’s elegantly rustic. It reminds me of the upscale lodges the really wealthy people of the early 20th century used to retire to in the summers.

Throughout the lobby and grand dining room, they have wonderful rustic furniture made by Old Hickory Furniture. They also have a lot of unique, one-of-a-kind furniture pieces and picture frames.

I set about to document these picture frames. I try to get one down on paper each time I visit. I even made one a couple of years ago. I’ll write it up soon with some instructions on making it.

They are really beautiful in the right setting. The thing I like is that they are made by hand.

I purchased a 75 year old steelprint out of an old book on eBay. It’s an image of a family of beavers busily chewing twigs, downing trees, and building their lodge. That’s the image that resides in the twig frame I made. It hangs in my studio.

I couldn’t think of a more appropriate scene for framing with a twig frame.

Hardoy Chair

20-Jul-06
Hardoy Chair

I used to work in the design industry in several different disciplines as a designer/engineer etc.

My stint with one company involved designing large office spaces filled with cubicles out the wa-zoo. Acres of cubicles.

One technique designers use to break up the maze involves the precise placement of just the right mix of ridiculously expensive furniture pieces. These pieces fall into the realm of “High Design”.

Don’s Helpful Hints: When you say “High Design”, it helps to recall Thurston Howell the Third from Gilligan’s Island. If you do that, you’ll be able to say it with the proper inflections in social settings. Jut out your chin, keep the teeth together, and emphasize the i’s.

Like art, furniture has its icons, both human and material. And like art, the appreciation of each icon is in the eye of the beholder. As they say, some like it hot, some like it cold.

The thing about high design is you have to be somewhat in tune to it to appreciate it. That’s a non-demeaning way of saying you have to be “in the know”. To those “in the know”, there is no better place to be in terms of maintaining one’s coolness.

To those NOT in the know…well they don’t really see any value in being “in the know” in the first place. So, they are just as content as those “in the know”.

But I digress…

High end designers tend to design for the sake of design first, then for the sake of comfort, safety and utility. The resulting creations are most interesting. Surprisingly, most are comfortable…if you remain in the intended position.

So, with all the interesting pieces in the high design realm of furniture, it seems like a good subject for Art Cards. Think I’ll see where it leads. If nothing else, I’ll learn more about the history of the pieces and thus be…”In The Know”.