"Catch A Wave

and you're sittin' on top of the world..." Love that old Beach Boys song. Here's one of my latest designs. I call it "The Wave". It's got the same comfortable pitch as my Weekender chair but with a bit more flair. As I write, we have 30 degrees of Fahrenheit, with wind chills in the low 20's. Welcome to spring in Maine. But it won't be long now. Summer's on the way. The folks will be opening up their cottages and returning to the beaches. The surf will indeed be up and you'll be sitting on top of your world. Catch a Wave chair today and you can enjoy summer all year long.

Paint It Black

I made these chairs for Rob Henry. He has has a camp on Peak's Island in Casco Bay. He was pretty cool about the design, giving me full artistic control except for the color. "I don't care what they look like but I need to have them painted black." You know what they say about the customer always being right. I think in this case, Rob hit a home run.

Springs Green

Nature's first green is a wonderful hue. With the first day of spring now only a week or so away, I am already seeing some flowers pushing up through the leaves in our garden. Of course in Maine we are about to enter Mud season. But that's ok, for out of the brown muck always springs glorious green.

Grace in Pistachio

Another custom order for a set of "Grace" chairs yields this delicious beauty. The matching chair is a light coral. Very tasty. They should look fantastic together as they grace my client's garden path.

2010 Preliminary Event Schedule

I've been putting together my 2010 events calendar for publication to my website. Here's what we have planned thus far:

July 9-13 at the Woodlanders Gathering, Mineral Point Wisconsin. Alan Bradstreet and I will be demonstrating the fine art of walking stick creation and rustic joinery techniques.

August 28th from 10-2 at the Center For Maine Craft in Gardiner. I will demonstrate rustic chair making from design to seat weaving. I will have chairs on display and for sale throughout the summer so stop by! It's a great place to visit and shop.

Labor Day Weekend. Director's Choice Craft Show at the Center For Maine Crafts. The first of what promises to be one of the regions best shows. Enjoy early bird Holiday shopping in a festive atmosphere.

September 11-12 at the 23rd Annual Rustic Furniture Fair at the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake. The premier show for quality rustic furnishings. Not to be missed.

We are now finalizing plans for other shows. So visit my site early and often for the latest news.

Certain Blue

Another "digital interlude" finds me at the computer with Photoshop CS4 and a couple of billion pixels. I define myself as a "Rustic". To me this entails so much more than furniture making or carving walking sticks. The Rustic mindset celebrates inventiveness and imagineering with materials available at hand; be they wood, found objects, paint or pixels. Rustic making is just good old Yankee tinkering. Mostly you fail, but occasionally you follow that spark to something great. Life is short make art.

Reitveld Rustic

Or Reitveld Adirondack. One wonders if the dutch designer used the Westport chair as inspiration for his Red and Blue Chair from c.1923. In any event it's all good. Re-interpretations and re-inventions happen all the time. It's the role of the tinkerer, the Yankee tradesman to borrow whatever isn't in his tool bag to get the job done. With my humble heartfelt thanks to all the great designers who came before me, I give you Reitveld Rustic. With a shelf for books!