Virginia Mountain Woodworks
30 November 2010
“Art Without Compromise”
One of the things I most enjoy doing with this blog site is writing about other woodworkers, especially those who actually succeed in making a living at it, because it is not an easy thing to do. A lot of the problem is the Wal-Mart world in which we live because it has given rise to the increasingly pervasive, and forever incorrect, assumption that the lowest price will also bring quality. The other part of the problem woodworkers face is that hand-made furniture is necessarily more expensive for reasons the general public does not entirely understand.
Really, it’s counter-intuitive. People see a large factory with machines that cost six or seven figures, and the assumption is that they must charge more for their work. But the truth of it is that because of their output, they can charge much less. But what they provide in a lower price is often lost in the quality of the finished work. There is also the integrity that goes into a well-made piece of furniture because so much of it revolves around the honor of him who built it. Once it’s glued up, not even another woodworker can tell if a chair has been joined with mortise-and-tenon joints or biscuits or dowels. It’s something that remains a mystery until the joint fails, and the other part of the mystery is, how long will it be before that day comes? Well, that depends on how it was joined, because if it is joined correctly, the answer may well be, not in your lifetime.
And with that I can turn to the subject of today’s blog, because Virginia Mountain Woodworks is a company that was founded on the very integrity of which I speak. They design and build custom, handcrafted wood and glass products: cabinetry, built-ins, furniture, doors and stained and leaded glass. They’re located, as their name would suggest, in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, and much of the wood they select for their furniture is often harvested in their own state. They pride themselves on the innovation of their designs and their willingness to work with their clients in order to produce a truly custom piece, but their main attribute is the integrity with which they work.
To cite some details near and dear to my heart, their custom cabinetry features 1/2″ backs and dovetailed drawers, and the complete avoidance of Medium Density Fiberboard in all its many permutations. They set out to make cabinetry that, above every other consideration, is well-made. The picture I’ve used here is from one of their bathroom designs, because I found myself admiring the basic honesty with which the work was done. The other cabinetry picture was taken during a kitchen installation, but I decided to use it because I could see at once that these are quality cabinets
The other part of what they are doing at Virginia Mountain Woodworks is the purity of their designs. Richard Weigand focuses on furniture and has a number of designs I especially liked. He makes a wonderful Sam Maloof-style rocker, but I found myself gravitating to the one I’ve featured here, as it is more Richard’s design, and really, the piece that first caught my eye on their website. I’ve not yet attempted a rocker, and perhaps never will, so I always find myself admiring those who are willing to purchase all that wood, break out the hand tools and go to work sculpting it into a shape both unique and standard.
I’ve not seen a rocker in quite the design we see here, so that part of it is unique, but a rocker, like any other chair, has certain standard design elements that must always be present (back tilted at a certain degree and so forth) because without them, the chair cannot perform its function. It’s what makes furniture making both an art and an incredible challenge, because the goals are two-fold and often at loggerheads with each other. People like those at Virginia Mountain Woodworks work hard to make something beautiful, but something, too, that does its job without compromise because furniture, quite unlike the art that hangs in a gallery, has a job to do.
Joseph
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