Long's Park Success Stories

Fun was had by all at Long's Park this year... until a monsoon rolled in... but, I'll get to that part later.

As makers of large and heavy things, we had to arrive bright and early on Thursday morning to ensure we could get everything assembled and ready for Friday's show open. First things first, remove the giant cart of furniture from the horse trailer. Again, with the aid of a block-and-tackle and some ramps, we wheeled that sucker out with relative ease. Lucky for us, the weather was perfection for move-in day. We set up over 30 pieces of our furniture in our booth, enjoyed a nice packed lunch on one of our new desks, detailed the pieces, lit everything, and were on our way before the sun set. Yes, that includes the moving and set up of the 11'6" long live edge brown oak table and our just-finished live edge walnut desks.

The park opened it's metaphorical doors at 10am on Friday and the Lohr Woodworking Studio team was ready for visitors! I was particularly excited (and nervous) because it was my first-ever show. What I learned? People are so nice! Seriously, if you want to talk to really pleasant, interested, and happy people, go to the Long's Park Art & Craft Festival because that seems to be where they all are- both visitors and exhibitors. With a steady flow of foot traffic through the show and our tent all weekend, I got the chance to meet and talk with so many wonderful people. Everyone wanted to know about the materials, the designs, and process that goes into making our pieces and we were all more than happy to tell them all about it. It was fantastic!

What makes any show even more fantastic is finding those people in the world that love something you've made so much that they want to take it home to keep as their own. I was the first to make a sale and, beyond being completely surprised, I was flattered and appreciative that Sandy couldn't imagine her new mantle without my live edge maple candle holder atop it! So, Friday marked a landmark moment in my woodworking career- confirmation that people like the things I can make enough to buy them; I'm still smiling, two weeks later! Jackie came to Long's Park to find Rob specifically after seeing his article in Woodcraft Magazine. She and her husband are now the proud owners of a mini Lohr Woodworking Studio collection of their own including two Morris chairs, an accessory table, and one of my cherry hand mirrors. Elaine couldn't leave the show without one of Jeff's last remaining floor lamps (likely never to be made again). Above and beyond all that, we were proud to sell out of our easy-storing red oak deck chairs! What a show, what a show!

One of the major highlights of this year's Long's Park Art & Craft Festival was getting to meet Marion Faulkner. Marion's husband, Dick Faulkner, founded the Long's Park show in 1979 and their son Rick went on to serve as co-director with his father. He built the show from the group up and it now continuously reigns as one of the top fine art & craft shows in America. Despite the difficult terrain, she came into our booth and posed for a photo with Jeff. It's thanks to the Faulkner family that artists from across the nation are able to share their art every Labor Day weekend at Long's Park so we considered it an honor to have the chance to meet her!

After a long and enjoyable three days of perusing all kinds of art, talking with all sorts of people and artists, and showing and selling our furniture, it was time to pack it in and head back to Schwenksville. Out came the cart and the horse trailer, and in came roughly 50 packing blankets. With the threat of 'severe thunderstorms' lingering all day, Jeff & Linda brought in reinforcements to make the move-out happen as quickly as possible. With Jeff, Linda, Rob, myself, John, Paula, and Steve, 5 vehicles, and some celebratory beers, we got everything done in record time. It was all smooth sailing, the cart was in the trailer, we were breaking out the sheets of plastic to protect what we could inside of it from the threat of rain... and then the sky opened up. Smooth sailing quickly turned into a scramble to get anything left out into the trailer, drape some sort of plastic over the heap of furniture, and get the door closed before everything was soaked. Everything still got pretty wet but, thankfully, I think we got more soaked than the furniture. It was really the above-and-beyond efforts of Jeff and Linda pulling everything out into the shop to air dry the following day that ultimately saved the finish.

Thank you to those of you that came to the festival and enjoyed the final weekend of Summer 2014 with artists from all over the nation. A huge thank you to those of you that stopped by our booth to say hello, chat, sit, touch, and/or shop with us! Thank you to the amazing people that helped us move in and move out of the show. For those of you that missed the festival, I can't recommend it highly enough as something to add to your 'Summer 2015 To Do List'.

Now, we welcome the fall season and all the excitement, classes, and furniture-making it will bring!

Live Edge Walnut Desks Done, Photographed, & Ready for Show!

Well, folks, we've done it again; By which I mean we have finished two one-of-a-kind live edge tables AND we were lucky enough to get Eoin in here and take some stellar photos of them. Woo!

Both tables are actually desks and are made with two slabs from the same walnut flitch. The first desk is appropriately named "Great Expectations" because it's destined to be a surface from which only great things will be previous post describing the "in progress."
inspired and produced (I'm rooting for a grand novel to be written here). It has a solid, live edge walnut top with curly maple inlaid dovetail bones strengthening and repairing the natural splits. The trestle base has hand-sculpted legs courtesy of Jeff's awesome shaving horse skills. This version of the desk comes complete with two drawers and a keyboard tray that can be pulled from either side of the desk. The drawers have some of Rob's signature dovetails and are made with spalted maple drawer fronts that curve to marry with the natural live edge of the top. For more detail as to how we tackled the various parts, read my

The second desk is in the same vein as Great Expectations, less the drawers and keyboard tray. With a simpler look, it maintains the same flowing trestle base design and solid live edge walnut top. The legs were hand-sculpted just the same but, the dovetail bones in this one are made from highly figured walnut so they have a subtle, striking effect. Both slabs have a long, beautifully feathered grain pattern (and amazingly free of splits or checks) down the center of the crotch.

We're bringing these new fellas to Long's Park Art & Craft Festival! If you're in the area, you should come to the show because it's filled to the brim with America's best artists along with some tunes and food!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, we are lucky to have Eoin O'Neill as part of the Lohr Woodworking Studio team for more reasons than one. Above and beyond his admirable woodworking and teaching skills, this man knows his way around a camera! We work incredibly hard to create pieces that are as beautiful as they are functional but Eoin gets all the credit for capturing these stunning images of them to ensure their timelessness. Two weeks ago, we pulled up all the foam floor tiles and repainted the cyclorama wall white to prepare for the shoot. The 16' seamless wall takes up 1/3 of the shop so it's all hands on deck to prepare and maintain it's clean-ness for the days of the shoot. This time around Eoin spent two days documenting three live edge tables. And (surprise, surprise) came out with great pictures.

Thanks again for all your time, equipment transportation, and skills, Eoin. And, for those of you that can make it Long's Park over Labor Day weekend, swing by our tent to see these gems in the flesh! Until then, a happy Monday to you, internet readers!