we went to the george nakashima woodworking compound in new hope yesterday. they have open house every saturday from 1 to 4:30 pm. we visited the three small cinderblock buildings that were open to the public. classic rocky hilly wooded bucks co landscape. a little bit opened up because of the leaves being off the trees. first stop is a show room (the closest thing to a gift shop) with books and a couple of small tripod endtable/stools (starter pieces at $550.00 that were looking pretty damn desirable) and nice larger pieces. then to a small woodworking building where we found a young aprentice hand sanding a detail on a restoration project. he told us that the set of six 40 year old captains chairs belonged to the rockefellers and needed work because they had been kept outside the whole time. some had fallen completely to pieces. but they had cleaned up real real nice considering and were almost ready to be returned back to the original owners. the small modern slightly industrial buildings all had oversized traditional japanese style windows. the plain unfinished grey cinderblock exterior and interior finishes did not have any dampness at all. the workshop windows were very large, some had pieces of cardboard in place to reduce the suns glare and drying effect on the stored wood. there is still a large inventory of wood on hand selected by the now deceased george. the last stop was the studio where two of georges children have kept the family craft trade going. mira is now considered the primary designer and she will hand select the wooden slabs with you and make you exactly what you want in a table, chair or cabinet. we spoke with the son kevin who sat in the middle of the room in a rocking chair. hell talk your ear of if you let him which is fine if your at all curious. we discussed the ben shahn prints on the wall. a very nice bs cats cradle print on japanese paper (two hands with a big mess of intertwined string laced through the fingers) looking like a take on pollock abstraction. warhol used that same funny pen and ink and stick drawing style in his early commercial work. kevin had his warhol story. firstly he recalled the famous cold fish hand shake. second warhol wanted to trade his work for a piece of furniture. george wouldnt have it (what am i going to do with one of those paintings?). eventually they chose the wood for a piece to be made but andy died before picking it up. they completed the piece anyway and its someplace.
i forgot my camera but next time im in bucks ill go back to take pictures and drool over those nice new mira nakashima $550.00 stools.
35$ for the small candle holders shaped like the top of the stool above with a single hole drilled for candlestick, and 25$ for a hunk (sample) of finished wood, both signed by Mira.
signature branded on side or back i think. nice pieces of the action. and as with the stools great use of left overs.
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i forgot my camera but next time im in bucks ill go back to take pictures and drool over those nice new mira nakashima $550.00 stools.
- bill 1-30-2006 12:47 am
35$ for the small candle holders shaped like the top of the stool above with a single hole drilled for candlestick, and 25$ for a hunk (sample) of finished wood, both signed by Mira.
- johnsch (guest) 2-02-2006 4:42 pm [add a comment]
signature branded on side or back i think. nice pieces of the action. and as with the stools great use of left overs.
- bill 2-02-2006 4:47 pm [add a comment]