Horizon Custom Homes - Mission & Teak Furniture
Online store specializes in wood furniture styles of Mission, Shaker, Craftsman, Stickley, Prairie, Arts & Crafts as well as high quality Teak furniture at discount costs.
Wow ! "A Mission Morris chair as made famous by Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1930s" !
And does anyone else find the idea of a Shaker TV cabinet slightly odd?
On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 01:40:59 +0100, Andy Dingley calmly ranted:
I'm still trying to find out why "you people" follow those obviously spammed links.
------------------------------------------- Stain and Poly are their own punishment
Car wrecks - can't turn away.
I didn't follow the link. Thanks for being the guinea pig.
As for a Shaker TV cabinet, just yesterday I visited a local (Northeast Texas) furniture store, which sells nothing but Amish-crafted furniture. Once a month, the owners take a truck to Ohio to pick up new orders. They place all orders by mail, or by a fax service that delivers personally.
My first thought upon entering the store: "Wow, I didn't know Stickley was Amish!"
My second thought, after inspecting the inlay work on a buffet: "Wow, I didn't know they had horse-drawn routers!"
The use of modern power tools is apparent on some pieces, and I know the Amish (just like the large Mennonite communities where I grew up) have big, serious disagreements about the degree of modernity that they will permit. They periodically fracture over such issues, seek out others who agree with them, and establish new communities.
Anyhoo, that's just a brief aside. I have no quibble with their use of power tools, or even fairly modern production methods. The quality of construction vastly exceeded anything available at our mainstream furniture stores, for about the same price.
I'm not sure if it's a quibble of craftsmanship or aesthetics when I wish they'd have cleaned out the routed corners with a chisel, to make the inlays sharp. And I would definitely prefer a finish other than polyglop.
Some pieces were beautifully artistic, such as the bowed-back dining chairs. Mass-production factories would never waste the wood required to produce the curved cuts.
Back to aesthetics for a moment: I wish they'd discover leather upholstery. There were many beautiful A&C/Stickley/Morris style pieces, so far as the wood goes. And they were draped with horrid prints or weaves reminiscent of Early American Mobile Home. *yech!*
If the same pieces had been clad in green leather, at this moment I'd be figuring out how to put off the new roof, since our roof money would be in the hands of the furniture store. So I guess I shouldn't complain too much. ;-)
Kevin
I had alway heard this too. However, we live about 30 miles from a staunch Amish community in South Central Kansas. There are two furniture shops that do wonderful work. These folks drive the horse-drawn buggies to work, wear traditional clothing and beards, use very old tractors to do farmwork and light the showroom with gas lights. I took a peek into their wood shop a year or so ago and it would have turned Norm green. They have figured it out.
I was also admiring some prayer-plaques that were made of walnut and about
2' x 3' in size with an ornate prayer, grapes and leaves carving. On inspection, I asked the showroom salesperson how long the Amish had been doing laser etching. She smiled and said "Well, we farm some of our stuff out to the Mennonites."On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 07:26:25 GMT, Kevin Craig wrote: [snip] | |My first thought upon entering the store: "Wow, I didn't know Stickley |was Amish!" | |My second thought, after inspecting the inlay work on a buffet: "Wow, I |didn't know they had horse-drawn routers!" | |The use of modern power tools is apparent on some pieces, and I know |the Amish (just like the large Mennonite communities where I grew up) |have big, serious disagreements about the degree of modernity that they |will permit. They periodically fracture over such issues, seek out |others who agree with them, and establish new communities.
SWMBO and I have taken a couple of three-month long RV trips through the American heartland. Her ancestors were brought up in Nebraska and Iowa and on one trip we did a lot of poking around in tiny little towns looking for gravesites and other genealogical stuff.
Also, our next-door neighbor's parents live in Spring Green, WI (Mecca for the cultists that worship the murderous Frank Lloyd Wright) and we have visited them on both trips. Leo, the neighbor's father, was born in Spring Green and loves to tour us around in the backcountry. On one of these tours we went to an Amish country store. We were loading up on fresh baked bread, preserves, etc. when I heard the drone of a gasoline engine emanating from an out building.
I asked Leo, "What's up with that?" He told me that the local government required them to refrigerate certain products if they were to be sold to the public, so it was okay to have electricity if the government "forced" it on them.
Similarly, we were in some tiny little town with lots of Amish riding around in horse-drawn buggies, where we were doing research at city hall. The town "historian" was a woman, who was also the Mayor. During our conversation, I mentioned that we had visited a lot of communities where "Amish furniture" was for sale and it sure looked machine-made to me.
She said, "Oh yes, it is, but the Amish are allowed to work with machinery, they just can *own* it." She went on to say that it was just dandy for Amish to ride in cars, they just couldn't own them and that they were in using her telephone all day long. But strictly for business.
I also recall seeing an article someplace (probably FWW) where an Amish guy was using lots of power tools, but they had all been converted to hydraulic motor drive. As long as they weren't electric it was okay. Go figure.
"Wes Stewart"
We spent some time is southern and SE Wisconsin a couple of years ago. We are really looking forward to going back, probably next spring. For those who have not been there this is a beautiful and fascinating place to be. Frank Lloyd Wright is just the best know example of the interesting and creative (if not off-beat) people that were and are in the area. Sauk County and Spring Green are examples of traditional America. The area has artists, craftsmen (women), wineries and great resturants. Moreover prices are more than reasonable.
As an old Amish dude told me one time, "We're simple; we're not stupid."
Dick Durbin
Thank you for this anecdote, this explains a lot. So all those years growing up when I worked my ass off to own a car, my friends were actually Amish? This might also explain why they didn't have their *own* cigarettes. Now that I think about it, I must have moved into an Amish neighbourhood... I wonder when my neighbour is planning on returning my CMS.
-Brian
Now that's the one that always puzzled me. So hydraulics are somehow holier than electrics ?
I seem to remember that the electricity isn't objectionable, it's the fact that the electric network makes them less self reliant. Their hydraulic and pneumatic tools are frequently powered by stationary diesels at a cost much higher than commercial electric. Seems to me that they are still reliant on the "English" for their diesel fuel as I have not seen any oil refineries in the "Amish" areas of Ohio.
My impressions only - I may be all wrong. I do know the "Amish" furniture store in Berlin, Ohio was happy to ring up our furniture purchases on an electric cash register and verify the Visa payment on the phone line.
I can understand that argument, but why not have their own generators and keep the machines electrically powered ?
I suppose that there's then a risk they'll succumb to electric lighting and Playstations. Maybe their pragmatic smartness is getting the better of sheer conformance to rules.
|On Fri, 15 Oct 2004 01:17:31 GMT, Larry Kraus | wrote: | |>I seem to remember that the electricity isn't objectionable, it's the |>fact that the electric network makes them less self reliant. Their |>hydraulic and pneumatic tools are frequently powered by stationary |>diesels at a cost much higher than commercial electric. | |I can understand that argument, but why not have their own generators |and keep the machines electrically powered ? | |I suppose that there's then a risk they'll succumb to electric |lighting and Playstations. Maybe their pragmatic smartness is getting |the better of sheer conformance to rules.
I'm the last person that should be commenting on religions' rules, but if I'm wrong I'm sure to be corrected.
Seems to me that the Amish allow their young men to go off into the wild world for one yearlong bachelor party before they come home to the fold.
One of the anecdotes we heard during our travels was about some young men who went to the big city and became construction workers. While their co-workers went bar hopping and skirt chasing after hours, the Amish kids went back to their rooms and watched television. This was
*really* sampling the forbidden.Considering what's on TV these days, maybe they're on to something.
Horizon Custom Homes did say:
Cabinet, but I can't figure out what it is that bugs me about it.
I was in one fellow's shop in southern Minnesota, and he had a whole lineup of very nice modern power tools, but the motors had been removed, and they were turned with belts from an overhead shaft, just like in the old days. I forget whether it was steam or water power that turned the shaft.
Regards, Allen
The framing around the carcase and the doors. It's too thick and obvious on the carcase frame, too narrow on the doors.
It's hard to say without seeing it for real, but this stuff _isn't_ ugly and if it's not made of squashed crapboard then it might even be decent stuff. Prices are damned cheap certainly - that's the main thing that concerns me.
And what's a "Shaker barstool" doing in there ? 8-)
On Fri, 15 Oct 2004 16:56:41 +0100, Andy Dingley wrote: [snip]
|Prices are damned cheap certainly - that's the main |thing that concerns me.
No kidding. If it sounds too good to be true....
Andy Dingley did say:
The solid teak steamer lounge chair... I'd be hard pressed to find the teak for that price.
And as for the Shaker barstool - Howd'ya think they got the shakes in the first place?
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