Furniture Society Convenes
Studio furniture makers share ideas at Indianapolis conference
The Furniture Society held its 10th annual conference in June at the Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis. Like its predecessors, this year’s conference featured a lively mixture of technical demonstrations, slide presentations by individual makers, panel discussions, and lectures.
Standout demonstrations included one on surface carving by Michael Cullen (see his work on the back cover of FWW #184); one by Marc Adams on dyeing veneer; and one by John Kriegshauser on building super-light furniture from sustainable materials. Kriegshauser showed how he built a supremely comfortable 12-1/2-lb. chair using 1/8-in. plywood, as well as an intriguing 10-1/2-lb. coffee table with a base composed of thin sticks and small spheres. (pictured right)
Fine Woodworking sponsored a discussion on furniture design details with Cullen, Kentucky chairmaker Brian Boggs, and Bill Keyser, the longtime Rochester Institute of Technology teacher who received the Society’s Award of Distinction in 2003. As usual, conversations begun during the presentations spilled into the hall and across the grounds.
No fewer than six exhibitions were mounted, from an invitational show of pieces with drawers to an unjuried show of work by Society members (there are 1,550; 352 attended the conference).
Photo top: Student work was a show highlight. The “Faculty Selects” exhibit featured student pieces nominated by instructors. A visitor appreciates an ash bench by Michael Albanese of the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Photo above right: John Kriegshauser’s coffee table of Siberian elm is supported by a lightweight structure of linked tetrahedrons.
For more information about The Furniture Society, visit them online at www.furnituresociety.org.
Photos: Jonathan Binzen
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