From Forest To Fine Furniture

The weather isn’t looking so great for leaf peeping in Vermont this weekend.  So if you’re traveling around the Green Mountain State and looking for indoor activities, try heading to Woodstock, VT for the Ninth Annual Vermont Fine Furniture and Woodworking Festival.

This year’s theme is “From Forest to Furniture:  Take Home a Piece of Vermont”.  It dovetails with our plans at Vermont Woods Studios for a showroom at Stonehurst in that the focus is to raise awareness about where your furniture comes from.

Much like the organic food movement, the organic furniture movement is catching on.  Customers are realizing both the economic and health benefits to buying locally crafted furniture, handmade from real, solid, sustainably harvested wood.

Come visit with some of the regions (and world’s) most respected fine furniture makers in Woodstock this weekend.  You’ll be able to see and feel their furniture creations and also learn about the well-managed forests where their wood is harvested.  Free tours are available of the nearby Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park.  Here customers can experience the forest and learn about each of the many links in the chain from forest to trees to furniture.

Shown above:  Brent Karner of ClearLake Furniture in Ludlow VT won first place for production furniture in the 2011 Vermont Fine Furniture Festival.  Who is going to win this year?

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Vermont woodworkers: this is a no-brainer. Vermont Fine Furniture & Wood Products Design Competition is a great opportunity to gain recognition and notoriety for your work.

Calling all Vermont woodworkers and fine furniture makers.  The 9th Annual Vermont Fine Furniture & Wood Products Design Competition wants YOU.  The festival which has been dubbed one of Vermont's Top Ten Fall Events by the Vermont Chamber of Commerce is a great opportunity to gain recognition and notoriety for your work.

Join some of the world's finest woodworkers and furniture designers and compete for best:

• Custom Studio Furniture
• Production Furniture
• Custom Woodenware and
• Carving and Sculpture

There is also a special category where students and apprentices can compete.  The Woodworking festival takes place September 29-30, 2012 in Woodstock, Vermont and the Design Contest entry forms are here.  If you're not already linked into the Vermont woodworking community, we recommend you become a member of the Vermont Wood Manufacturing Association, VWMA first.  That gets you a discount on entry fees and insider info on all things wood in Vermont.  We hope you join with us, VWMA and the "best of the best" woodworkers who are letting the world know that Vermont's the Fine Furniture Capital of America.

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VWMA the Vermont Wood Manufacturing Association recently announced details of this year's 2012 Vermont Woodworking Design Competion.  As part of the annual Vermont Fine Furniture Festival, this competion showcases the very best of fine woodworking expertise Vermont has too offer.  All Vermont woodworkers are encouraged to enter the competition and/or exhibit their furniture and handmade wooden accessories at the festival.

So for woodworkers, now is the time to get involved.  And for people who love wood and enjoy traveling through Vermont — be sure to mark your calendar for September 29 & Sunday, September 30, 2012.  The festival and competition will be held at the Union Arena, Route 4-Woodstock, VT. It's worth the trip.  Don't miss it!

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My mother keeps me up to date on the progress of  The Adirondack Carousel, a project that involves many of our passions at Vermont Woods Studios: woodcarving, nature, wildlife and the human spirit.  It's just across Lake Champlain in Saranac Lake, NY and I'm excited to see how it's going. 

The story behind it is inspiring.  Over 10 years ago, a Saranac Lake wood carver Karen Loffler, "while working on a master’s degree in creative studies, came across an article in a woodcarving magazine that showed a small children’s carousel fitted with woodland animals. The combination of a creative approach to problem solving, her love of woodcarving, and a desire to foster imagination and strengthen her local community, inspired Karen’s dream of building a full-size carousel complete with hand-carved figures of animals indigenous to the Adirondack Mountain area."

Now, after a decade of relentless hard work, supported by a close-knit community of like-minded people Karen's dream of the Adirondack Carousel project is becoming a reality. Woodcarvers from near and far have donated their skills, sponsors have underwritten the cost of production and local builders and volunteers have worked tirelessly to make it all come together.

We're thrilled for Karen and crew and wish them all the best during this exciting grand opening year.  You can have a Sneak Peak this Saturday, March 10 in Saranac Lake. Don't miss it and don't forget the camera!

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*   The 2010 Bi-Annual Furniture & Wood Products Design Competition
*   The Seventh Annual Vermont Student Woodworking Design Competition
*   Vermont Green Design Challenge

Vermont woodworkers of all levels are invited to apply for inclusion in these prestigious events by contacting Erin Sheridan at VWMA.  The competitions will be judged Saturday & Sunday, September 25-26, at the Vermont Fine Furniture Festival at the Union Arena in Woodstock, where the entries will be on display. Everyone is invited to an awards reception on the evening of Saturday, September 25.  Great prizes will be awarded for first place winners.  We look forward to seeing all the entries.  Hope to see you there.

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