Baltimore Show Debrief

I just got back from the Baltimore Fine Furnishings and Fine Craft Show after an all night drive (we left at 6:45pm and arrived in Montpelier at 4 am). It was a first year show so it was pretty much a gamble for everyone involved. Unfortunately, although the quality of the art was high, there were some problems in bringing in the people. Saturday was extremely slow; Sunday was better but still not what it needed to be. Most people were disappointed but seemed to realize that it is especially hard to get people to come to first year shows and that future years would probably be better. I didn't hear anybody say they wouldn't be back.

Personally, I didn't make any sales but that wasn't the primary goal anyway. I was looking for exposure and connections. The response to my work was good and I talked to at least three people that were either dealers or friends of dealers who were interested in passing along information about my work. If just one of those conversations leads to something, the show would be worth the time and effort. I'm sure it will take several months to find out if it pays off so I remain hopeful. At the same time, I was surprised there were not more dealers and collectors at the show.

I also had a number of interesting conversations, including talking with James Adajian, co-owner of a fine furniture restoration, conservation, and reproduction firm - Adajian and Nelson. We had a good conversation about french polishing and SDA 3C shellac solvent (it is what the pros use). As I suspected, SDA 3C 200 proof is a much more aggressive solvent and it makes french polishing more difficult. I just need to improve my technique, its still doable, just need to have a softer hand (update: James had recommended using upholstery cotton inside the cloth ball used in french polishing and it does work much better than the old cotton t-shirts I was using. It is much softer so touching down and lifting off the board much gentler). I also learned that french polish was traditionally done on table tops and that they still do it. It does get damaged but so does any other type of finish you could use, but the french polish is much easier to repair. Traditionally, people would just schedule a refinisher to come by the house every few years and renew the polish.

Here are three images of my new 5 x 20 booth. It was quite a lot of work to build and put together but I think it worked well. I'll modify it slightly for the 10 x 10 space at Paradise City in a few weeks. The good thing about not selling anything is that I still have my best work for that show. I find you can't have enough lights. I had 17 for 15 pieces of art and still could have used two more. I also think the paint color worked well. I chose "Anonymous" from Sherwin-Williams. It is about as neutral as you can get, a dark greenish-brown gray. If figured it would help the colors pop and I think it worked.



My favorite work at the show was by Katherine Park. She creates these amazingly complex and original surrealistic sculptural furniture. Although it is museum quality (in design and craft) she is still below the radar. I didn't get a chance to interview her and find out more about her history, but you can see from her resume that she hasn't shown much and that she isn't currently represented by a gallery. It looks like she has taken a break and is just getting back into promoting her work. Amazing stuff though. She has an undergraduate degree from the Rhode Island School of Design and a masters from the Rochester Institute of Technology School of American Crafts - and it shows.

"As the Deer Pants for Water" and Untitled (clock)
©Katherine Park

"As the Deer Pants for Water" (close-up)
©Katherine Park

"The Kingdom will Come" (writing desk)
©Katherine Park

There were also a few people at the show who were showing off beautiful wood in its almost natural state. Both Jeffrey Oh and David Stine had enormous slabs of walnut. They both also used butterfly key joinery to stabilize cracks -- Jeffrey with contrasting/highlighting bird's-eye maple protuding from the surface, David with flush walnut butterflies. Wood is art and both of them did a great job of highlighting its natural beauty.

Jeffrey's slab is Bastogne Walnut, an extremely rare natural cross between California Claro Walnut and California English Walnut. He got it from Talarico Hardwoods and said he hasn't paid for it yet, the purchaser can pay for the slab directly from the retailer and Jeffrey will add his time into the cost. The purchaser can also decide what he wants to do with the slab - table? counter top? wall sculpture?. He said it sells for $100/board-foot or around $4600. Pricey stuff but truly amazing.

Bastogne Walnut
©Jeffrey Oh
Bastogne Walnut
©Jeffrey Oh (close-up)

David Stine's walnut slab is about 9 feet by 4 feet and comes from somewhere in the 360 acre wood lot he manages sustainably from his family's old dairy farm. He harvests, mills, and kiln dries the lumber himself. This table has a convenient whole in the middle so that you can pass scraps to the dog without sliding your hands under the table. The base is made with knock down pegs so it is easy to move around as long as you are comfortable swinging around 150 lb slabs of lumber. David is a big guy and it is clear that he is using woodworking as a substitute for going to the gym.

Lowder Table
©David Stine

Next to my booth was Corwin Butterworth Custom Furniture. His work wavers through the Asian/Shaker/Mission aesthetic. I particularly like his Asian influenced pieces, like this "Four Post Chair". A really great design. He said it was influenced by the rear seats in the Suburu Brat. Apparently, it had handles for the passengers to hang on to like this chair.

"Four Post Chair"
©Corwin Butterworth

Also at the show as Carl Schlerman's company Crimson Asphalt. I especially like this combination of concrete, ash, and spalted maple. Talk about solid furniture. The whole thing probably weights between 350 and 400 lbs. At the same time the tappered legs and slopping top give it a very elegant and welcoming form.

©Carl Schlerman

An Official "Industrial Alcohol User Permit" Holder

After a 6 week application process and many hours of research, I finally have an Industrial Alcohol User Permit from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Now I can legally purchase 10 gallons of high quality denatured alcohol (95% ethanol/5% isopropanol) from Pharmco. Just in time too - I had bought 3 quarts of Behkol a few weeks ago to hold me over and I'm already down to about a half a quart.

Ethanol Chronicles - Part II

Last week, as my bottle of booze ran out, I decided to commit myself to finding out exactly what was needed to get a permit for pure ethanol. The 94% grain alcohol seemed to work much better at dissolving shellac than the denatured alcohol I am using, so I figured it was worth the effort.

The first thing I did was investigate what was required from the State of Vermont. After a couple of days of internet searches and phone calls, I finally talked to the licensing technician who sent me an application and I figured I was on my way, no fees needed, all I had to do was fill out the form and promise not to drink the stuff -- SCORE!

Only there was one problem - to fill out the form I needed to find a source for ethanol. So I started another series of internet searches looking for one. I've done this before and given up because the companies that supply this stuff clearly don't want to deal with "Joe I-need-some-booze Public." After over an hour of more internet searches and scanning through dozens of pages, I found a phone number of a company to call. I don't remember the company, and it is just as well that I don't supply a link, because when I asked about purchasing pure ethanol, they asked how much and I, modestly hoped that 5 gallons would be enough. The voice on the other end said, "Oh, we only sell by the megaton." I wonder how many train cars are needed for one mega-ton? If my math is any good, a megaton is somewhere around 225,000 gallons of ethanol; so clearly, I was a few orders of magnitude off. Fortunately, the man on the other end offered me a number for someone at ADM (Archer Daniels Midland) and thus started my journey down the supply chain of ethanol production.

Unsurprisingly, ADM was also unwilling to sell me 5 gallons of ethanol but the person I talked with was kind enough to mention two companies that they supply and suggested I talk with them. One of the businesses was a German company and I couldn't find a US telephone number for, but the other one was Univar. After searching a while on their website I found a phone number, which led to conversations with people at HQ, Albany, Cleveland, and then two more people in Albany. Finally, I was getting close. He told me that they could sell me 5 gallons but that their supplier was "Farmco" in Brookfield, CT and that I should talk with them.

This lead was initially confusing because he didn't give me a phone number and I couldn't find a "Farmco" in Brookfield. After a few internet searches I talked to a couple of other Farmco's that had no idea what I was talking about. Then I looked through the business directory in Brookfield and found Pharmco - unfortunately, this is where things started getting complicated.

I am amazed that this company never came up in any of my earlier searches because this is clearly the place to go if you need a supplier of pure or denatured ethanol in the US. Unfortunately, however, there are more issues involved with getting the stuff than I imagined. Clearly, if you have access to reasonably priced grain alcohol, that is a better use of your time. After numerous iterations of talking to Pharmco and the feds at TTB - Alcohol and Tabacco Tax and Trade Bureau (formally with ATF - alcohol, tobacco, and firearms) here is what I learned about purchasing the stuff:

- It is possible to buy 5 gallons of 200 proof ethanol from Pharmco but without an excise tax exemption, the price essentially doubles (approx $127 for 5 gallons plus $108 federal tax), making it no longer cost effective to purchase.
- The excise tax rate exemption is only available for schools, hospitols, labs, and the like - I clearly wouldn't qualify.
- Pharmco supplies very high quality denatured alcohol and looking through their list of formulas, I found that they have 95% 200 proof ethanol with 5% isopropanol (rubbing alcohol). You can't drink it but it is probably the most minimally hazardous alcohol to use after pure ethanol.
- The price for 5 gallons is around $115 but the minimum sale from Pharmco is $150. However, in order to buy more than 5 gallons (to save the $35 fee) you need a federal permit, which requires tracking and yearly inventory forms.
- Not getting a federal permit would seem to be the way to go except that Pharmco's minimum charge for non-permitted customers is $250.
- The permitting process can take up to 60 days.

So now I'm in the process of filling out the forms so I can purchase 10 gallons of high quality denatured alcohol. It should be enough for a few years, maybe I can cancel the permits after making the purchase, but then, maybe the feds will come knocking if I do. We'll see.

Progress Being Made

I started priming about six of the new pieces over the weekend but then realized that my very expensive moonshine was going to run out too soon so I decided to concentrate on just three of them.

I'm often asked how many coats of shellac I put on a piece but I've never been able to find a good way to answer the question for a number of reasons. One being that the question can easily require a thirty minute lecture on what shellac is and how it is applied, the other being I just can't keep track. With these three, there are probably 3 to 5 coats of heavy shellac on the back, and already between 6 and 12 coats (depending on how and where you count) of much lighter viscosity shellac on the front. Sanding out of the fine scratches after starting the applications and point specific applications makes the difference. In addition, the number of coats doesn't really have any meaning when new layers are continually being removed (rubbed out) and the concentration of shellac in alcohol varies greatly between applications.

With the piece above, you can see that I've added a couple of vertical lines of black epoxy since the earlier post. The back side of this piece is also great and I wanted to be able to show both sides but, unfortunately, the epoxy is too dark to see without back lighting so I'm in the process of designing a light box and learning about wiring LEDs.

I started adding red shellac to the pieces below. I'm trying to create an effect of different shades of the red/blue continuum in each of the rectangles, playing off the same effect in the tinted epoxy. I'm struggling with the issue of whether to fill in all the rectangles with color, or to leave some of them clear. I'm a little worried that there is too much color or that the red is too dominant. In the images below, I have added several coats of red, rubbed it out, added some more blue, rubbed, and then some more red. I think I'll go back and do some serious color removal next. I'd like to see some of the rectangles to have deep color but I'd like others to have much more subtlety.

With the one below, I've added a few more coats of blue. My plan is to add some yellow and to create some green/greenish rectangles but I'm now out of my moonshine so I have been trying to find a source of ethanol before I mix up some more shellac. I'll probably leave more of these rectangles clear to compare the effect. It is really hard for me to visualize the best outcome when I haven't done anything like this before.

Got My Booze

Monday was MLK day so I thought it would be a good chance to go to Plattsburgh, NY, check it out, and pick up some booze. Specifically, I was looking for "Everclear" - 190 proof ethanol as a solvent for shellac. 250 miles later I was home with a $22 bottle of Canadian liquid fire.

When I started working with shellac it took me a while to learn the risks of using denatured alcohol and figuring out the best/safest brand. The problem is that the Feds require that alcohol sold outside of the beverage industry regulations be mixed with poison (denature it) so that it will kill you if you decide to drink it. Most commercial brands mix ethanol (beverage grade alcohol) with methanol -- which may make you go blind and/or slowly destroys your nervous system. It is cheap (approx. $5/quart) but should never be used in confined spaces or on a regular basis. They also tend to mix methanol at a rate of around 50%. I use it for cleaning my shellac brushes and I don't leave it open in the shop. My favorite shellac solvent alcohol is Belhen's Behkol (about $7/quart) because it uses a very high concentration of ethanol along with butynol, isopropenol (rubbing alcohol), and propyl acetate (in addition to being a solvent it is a common pear flavor additive). I still need to ventilate the shop when I use it but I'm sure it is much safer than the common hardware store varieties.

The problem is that with an 8 month heating season here in Montpelier, VT, it is hard to ventilate for most of the year. So, to be safe, I've been searching for a source of pure ethanol and I had heard that grain alcohol was still available in New York (it has slowly been banned in one state after another as people continue to die from alcohol poisoning - about 1200 college students die every year!) Unfortunately, when we got to Plattsburgh, we learned that it had been banned 6 months earlier (we also learned there was absolutely no reason to go to Plattsburgh, but that is another story). However, after stopping in a second liquor store hoping for an old stash, I was told that they still sold it in Canada. Since we were going close to the boarder on the way back we gave it a shot. Having not planned on going to Canada, however, we only had driver's licenses. The Canadian boarder agent wasn't too happy about it but, ironically, after explaining that I was looking for some grain alcohol, he let us in.

We were quickly able to find the goods and head back to the boarder. Had it been time to eat we might have also sought out some poutine, but we had gotten our fill in P-town and were ready to get back. The US boarder agent wasn't happy with our driver's licenses either but let us in with a warning that we may end up in Guantanamo if we try it again.

The bottom line is that I need to find a better source of pure ethanol. $60/quart is more than I'd like to spend when retail rate - outside of the fed/state beverage tax scheme - should be closer to $7. I figure I might be able to apply for a license with the state but I assume that the quantities I need a so low that it wouldn't be worth it. I'll look into it but if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.