Celebrating Seven Years on Burnside!
Seven years filled with projects, challenges, and satisfied customers.FRITZ HANSEN CHAIR RESTORATION
Our photographer took a few moments the other day to observe one of our craftsmen at work. Matt Dune Donnelly carefully prepped, sanded, + assembled these amazing Fritz Hansen dining chairs throughout an afternoon. The restoration process of these vintage pieces is a delicate + time consuming process, that requires a lot of thought and research. The final product however, is a piece of design history that has its original beauty in the spotlight once again.
Restoration work by Matt Dune Donnelly of The Good Mod
Photography by Arthur Hitchcock
SPENCER STALEY TORCHES HIS WORK
Yesterday, we caught Spencer adding his own personal touch to his later milled sculpture. He decided to go over the piece with a propane torch, adding another dimension to the color & form. Here are a few photos of him at work.
This is an ancient technique called "shou-sugi-ban". In Japan, this was used to naturally protect the cedar from insects, fire and moisture.
Photos/Video by Arthur Hitchcock
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George Nakashima
George Nakashima, native to Spokane Washington, attended M.I.T and graduated in 1930 with his Master in Architecture. Nakashima worked in New York, Paris, Tokyo, and India before returning to Seattle in 1940. While volunteering to design and supervise at a religious sanctuary in India he was strongly influenced by Sri Aurobindo and was given the sandkrit name 'sundarananda'‚ one who delights in beauty. Nakashima believed that it is necessary to remove the desire to promote one‚ individual ego from the creative process and to devote work each day to the divine.
Like many Japanese Americans, Nakashima and his wife were interned in a camp on the Idaho desert, he learned his craft from a Japanese carpenter he met there. In 1943 they moved to New Hope, PA and set up a studio and woodworking shop.
Nakashima's Straight chair was introduced to the masses by Knoll in 1946, in 2008 Knoll worked with Mira Nakashima, George's daughter, to reintroduce the chair. The Nakashima studio is still operating today under Mira's supervision.
His major commissions included:
Furnishings for the late new york governor Nelson A. Rockefeller home, interiors for Columbia University, the Church of Christ the King in katsura, Kyoto, the International Paper Corporation, and the Monastery of Christ in the desert as well as the altars of peace. The altars of peace are now installed in New York City, Auroville / India, and the academy of art in Moscow / Russia.
You can view his works at:
The New York Metropolitan Museum, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo.
Source: http://www.designboom.com/portrait/nakashima_bio.html
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