Texas Furniture Makers Show 2009

Ten years! The TENTH Annual Texas Furniuture Makers Show will be held in Kerrville, TX and run from October 22 to December 5, 2009.

More information and entry form can be found at the KACC web site.

The Kerr Art & Culture Center has rounded up another great set of judges for this year's show:

• Jonathan Binzen of New Milford, CT is a nationally known craftsman, author, contributing editor for Fine Woodworking Magazine and photographer specializing in furniture and architecture.
• Spider Johnson of Mason, TX is a professional artist, writer, furniture maker, wood marquetry master and musician.
• Curtis Whittington of Boerne, TX is a professional furniture maker and master craftsman.

Two dozen woodworkers have already been accepted into the show during the early registration period. If you are a Texas furniture maker, hurry to get your entry application in before August 15th.

As in past years, there will be a review with the judges the day after the reception. This is one the the smartest and most valuable programs any furniture show anywhere does.

Also, this year's continuing education will be, "The Contemporary Scene in Handmade Furniture" by show judge Jonathan Binzen.

The reception and awards ceremony will be on November 7th, 2009.

Cash Awards:
First Place - Best in Show: $1000
Best Craftsman Award: $750
Best Design Award: $750
Best Contemporary Style Furniture: $750
Best Traditional Style Furniture: $750
Best Texas Style Furniture: $750
Best Whimsical / Art Furniture Style: $750
Woodcraft's People's Choice: $300
Best Apprentice Furniture Maker: $250
Hill Country Turner's Choice Award: $100

Texas Furniture Makers Show 2008

The ninth annual Texas Furniture Makers Show will be held from October 23 through December 6, 2008. It is held at the Kerr Arts & Cultural Center in Kerrville, Texas.

This state wide show is a growing phenomenon open to all Texas furniture makers. Because of the large pool of interested furniture makers, work will be selected for the show by a jury. Work accepted for the show will be eligible for the following list of prizes:

• First Place – Best of Show - $3,000
• Best Traditional Furniture - $1,200
• Best Contemporary Furniture - $1,200
• Best Texas Style Furniture - $1,200
• Best Whimsical/Art Furniture - $1,200
• Woodcraft’s People’s Choice - $300
• Show Committee’s Choice - $250
• Best Apprentice Furniture Maker - $250
• Best Furniture with Decorative Carving - $250
• Hill Country Turners’ Choice Award - $100

The awards will be announced at the Awards Ceremony at the KACC on Saturday, November 1st 2008, 6 to 8pm.

Work will be broken into five categories:

• Contemporary
• Traditional
• Texas Style
• Whimsical/Art Furniture
• Apprentice

More information and entry form can be found at the KACC web site.

This year's show will be judged by three respected and knowledgeable woodworkers:

• Asa Christiana - Editor of Fine Woodworking
• Michael Fortune - Designer, teacher, mentor, and one of Canada's leading creative furniture maker
  
• Paul Sellers - Director of the School of Woodworking at the Homestead Heritage Village in Waco

The show also offers continuing education for furniture makers. This year, Michael Fortune will be giving his presentation, "Developing an Idea from Concept to Completion." One of the most intriguing things for any designer is to see how another designer works. No matter how long a designer has worked, there is still so much to learn, an opportunity like this should not be missed. The seminar costs $20 and will be held at the KACC on Saturday November 1st from 2:30 to 5:30pm. Seating is limited, so sign up soon.

The show is sponsored by: Woodcraft, Otto Dukes Machinery Company, and Fine Lumber & Plywood.

The Hill Country is a beautiful part of Texas, The Fall/Winter is a great time to see it, and there will be wonderful furniture! You would be crazy not to go.

Texas Furniture Makers Show - 2007

Last week was the eight annual Texas Furniture Makers Show in Kerrville Texas. Another successful show with strong work and great judges. This year the judges included Charles Kegley, Rex White, and Thomas Moser. Rex White has had work in the show several times and had won numerous awards in the past. Thomas Moser founder of Thos. Moser Cabinetmakers is well respected and was really a great choice of a judge. I don’t know anything about Charles Kegley other then that he made for a good judge and was quite affable, yet direct when fielding questions about his decisions.

From left to right: Charles Kegley, Rex White, and Thomas Moser

As always, Jim Derby did a master job of running the show.

Jim Derby at the awards ceremony

I was asked again this year co-lead a continuing education seminar and this year I was with Alton Bowmen and Frank Stazza. It was a round table discussion this year and I think that worked out quite well. I had a number of photos I took at the ICFF this past spring and I had a little slide show of these. Frank did a great demo on handtools.

Frank Strazza’s handtool demo

I thought the judges first place choice for the show was a little odd, but generally I was in agreement with their decisions, including Frank winning second overall for his Jewelry Cabinet.

Frank Strazza - Jewelry Cabinet

This has become a strong show and it is always remarkable how a show limited to state wide entrants can draw such strong work. But then, Texas is a large state.

Jim Derby will start working on the Ninth Annual Texas Furniture Makers Show in short order, I look forward to seeing it!

Texas Furniture Makers Show - 2006

Time again for the annual Texas Furniture Makers Show. As in years pass, KACC has found three talented people to judge the show: Amy Devers, Christi Farley, ASID, and Jim Wallace. KACC is offering show participants a ‘review’ session with the judges on Sunday, November 5, 2006. This is a unique opportunity for furniture makers to gain insight into the work displayed. I can not emphasis enough the value of this session, it is truly unique. This session is open only to show participants.

The show is starting earlier this year: October 26, to December 2, 2006. The reception and awards ceremony will be from 6 to 8 pm on Saturday, November 4, 2006. That is the same day Karl Muench and I will be giving another class on furniture design: "The Art and Function of Furniture". Howard Hale will also be offering a finishing class the same day: "Essential Furniture Finishing Techniques".

The winners from the 2003 show can be seen here: http://www.kacckerrville.com/2004furnitureshow.html. And the work of David A. Petersen, a former show winner (2003 President’s Award), can be seen here: http://www.masterpiecefurniture.com.

If you find yourself in or near the beautiful town of Kerrville in November, you owe it to your self to see this show.

Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft

While in Louisville, we visited the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft. It is located not far from several hotels and is close to many other museums and places of interest.

Second floor gallery

During our visit we saw a furniture show and wood turning show. Both were enjoyable and worth seeing. The museum works to share the art and craft of Kentucky artist, but also reaches out to weave in national artists and craftspeople. It makes for a good mix. The museum is spread over three public floors and has a good amount of work on exhibit, definitely worth a trip.

Fin Spin by Bruce Mitchell

The Museums gift shop is also of note displaying the work of dozens, if not hundreds of Kentucky artists. It is a show in itself and quite densely packed, so walk through it twice, or even three times to not miss anything.

The museum also has a permanent collection, part of which is on display. I was somewhat less impressed with this section. There are several good examples of ceramics, wood turning, and an exceptional quilt, but it also had some questionable folk art, or outsider art as some like to refer to it. I appreciate genuine folk art, but it is a title used far too loosely and it did not seem to fit well with the museum's focus on craft.

Texas Furniture Makers Show

The Texas Furniture Makers Show will be held at the Kerr Arts & Culture Center in Kerrville Texas. The show opens on October 28^th and runs through December 5, 2005.

This is the sixth year of the show which has consistently been filled with a an excellent and eclectic range of finely crafted work.

I had the pleasure of judging the show in its second and third years. It has come a long way since then and now the show is judged by an ever changing three person committee of highly qualified individuals.

Jim Derby, the president of KACC (Kerr Arts & Culture Center), has done a tremendous job of building the show. Ken Malson has also been instrumental in the development of the show.

The event just keeps getting bigger and better. Last year I was fortunate enough to inaugurate a continuing education event for woodworkers focusing on design. This year in addition to the design class that I taught, KACC is also offering a great class on wood finishing, which is one of the more overlooked, yet very important parts of woodworking.

This year, Karl Muench will be teaching the design class and Curtis Whittington will be teaching the finishing class. If I can manage to get there, I will be sitting in on the design class and putting my two cents in. But I am very torn as the finishing class is held at the same time.

I highly recommend all Texas woodworkers to submit their work for the show (it is too late this year, but start thinking ahead for next year).

For anyone interested in design, this is a great show to see. If you are anywhere near Kerrville, you really should go see this show. Kerrville is quite a nice little town in the Hill Country so stay and have a look around. You will be surprised by the number of galleries the town has, I know I was.