SAFETY FIRST

In the early 1970’s when I began my career in woodworking one of my first jobs was as a finishing carpenter working for a contractor from Yugoslavia. With the exception of me and one other carpenter all of the crew were recent immigrants from Yugoslavia. I remember one of my first days on the job; I needed to rip some wood on the table saw. I donned my safety glasses and proceeded with the task. The other carpenters watched me as I worked and when I was finished they mocked me for my use of safety glasses. They told me that using safety glasses was “Canadian” and by inference, wimpy. When they ripped material on the table saw they simply squinted to protect their eyes from slivers and projectiles. Perhaps Yugoslavians had developed stronger eyelashes from thousands of years of evolution. Probably not, the table saw has only been around for a few hundred years. No what these fellows had in common was macho moronic bravado. This, like the habit of whistling at passing women and long haired guys by workers on construction sites, I assumed was a thing of the past.

Not so according to a young fellow who dropped by my shop recently looking for an apprenticeship. This fellow, let’s call him Erik, had taken the entry level trades training for joinery at BCIT and had worked for four months for one of the larger millwork shops in the Vancouver area, this shop was a member of the industry association AWMAC. We chatted for some time about the state of the industry, apprenticeships, and his experiences so far. One of the things that caught his attention in my shop was the panel saw and specifically that the splitter and dust hood, stock safety features were in use. He was impressed because at his former employers these devices were simply removed and discarded as a matter of routine. When he inquired to his foreman why the splitter (the fin like piece of metal behind the blade) was removed he was told that it was "in the way”. He could not get an answer to the question “in the way of what?”

The splitter as shown in the photo above is one of the most ingenious safety features I have seen on a table saw, especially a sliding panel saw. I use my saw for both panels and solid wood. The splitter virtually eliminates the possibility of kickbacks, one of the most serious hazards with these machines. The only situation where the splitter can get in the way is when cutting a kerf part way through the material. In this case the splitter is easily removed in a matter of minutes.

The dust hood which catches as much as 50% of the airborne dust also acts as a very important safety feature preventing the operator from coming in contact with the moving blade. The only time this device is in the way is when ripping narrow parts against the fence. It has a lever on the top which allows the operator to easily lift the hood out of the way allowing the use of a push stick.

Many things disturbed me about Erik’s experience regarding safety procedures on his first job. It is difficult to attract good people to the joinery trade. Maybe part of the reason is because of these stupid attitudes that persist in the industry. It is one thing for a tradesperson to decide for himself to forgo the benefit of a safety device or procedure on the job and take a risk with life and limb but it is quite another to force an apprentice to take that risk by discarding safety devices and preventing him or her from using their own instinct and discretion.

Of course these foolish attitudes toward safety also negatively affect the bottom line for the business, which of course affects wages, which of course affects the ability to attract quality people to the joinery trade.

CASTING OSB BEFORE SWINE

This is a true storey. The other day I was having a coffee break at a café near my shop. I was sitting outside on the patio. A middle aged couple sat down at a table nearby. As the woman was putting down her coffee and pulling up a chair she remarked to her male companion “this is such a nice café, I love what they’ve done with the tables and counter tops, I think it’s a kind of Birdseye Maple”.

The table tops and counters are in fact made from a type of OSB, a low cost panel often used as sheathing, with a lumpy thick layer of glossy epoxy resin pored over them.

The image at the top is an actual table top. The image at the bottom is real Birdseye Maple.

VIRTU - CANADIAN RESIDENTIAL FURNITURE DESIGN COMPETITION

VIRTU was a national furniture design competition organized by a group called Forum & Function Directions in Canadian Design, led by Ester Shipman.
The format of the exhibition was to invite designers to submit pieces. All those accepted were “winners” and became part of the exhibition. Some works not accepted were given “honourable mention” and photos of these pieces were also displayed as part of the exhibition.
This annual competition seems to have spanned a period of about twelve years beginning in 1985 and ending in 1996. I am not able to come up with much by “googling” but here is something from CBC radio on the jury process.

The images here are the front and back of the flyer used to publicize the event. I had the good fortune of exhibiting four pieces in this inaugural event as well as having an image of one of my chairs used for all of the publicity materials and the exhibition catalogue. The publicity materials were designed by Bruce Mau.
It’s interesting to note that these competitions ceased around the time that personal computers and the internet became common. 1995 was the year that Windows ’95 was introduced and the year that I acquired a personal computer and started designing with CAD.
Furniture design of course has changed in Canada over the past twenty five years. Styles and fads have come and gone.
I am not aware of any national Canadian furniture design competitions or exhibitions taking place since the end of Virtu. Of course there are trade shows, industry events such as IDS in Toronto and IDSwest in Vancouver. These are not competitions or juried exhibitions but trade shows, provided they meet a basic criterion, anybody who pays the price is part of the show.

www.francislemieux.com
www.franksmith.ca

DESIGN AND AUTOMATION

As a designer and craftsperson who has designed and made many chairs, seeing this piece inspires all kinds of reflection on design, craft and manufacturing, too much to put down here, but I would like to say a few things and hopefully, others will have something to add.

This chair the DC09, designed by Inoda + Sveje and made by Japanese manufacturer Miyazaki Isu is a great example of how far fine, wood furniture making has come with the help of automation. When I first saw this chair, I assumed it was the work of a highly skilled craftsperson with a very refined design sense. In reality it is the work of a team of industrial designers and technicians. Indeed, for a craftsperson, working with conventional hand and power tools to produce a piece like this would be a major challenge-as a one off. To re-produce the piece in a quantity, with consistency would be masterful.

In terms of design, it is a kind of highbred between the work of studio furniture maker Sam Maloof and industrial designer Hans Wegner.

Apparently, the retail price for this chair is 1300 to 2500 Euros or 1662 to 3196 Canadian dollars, depending on the wood choice.

Most so called “studio furniture makers” in the Vancouver area do not make chairs. Chairs have always been considered more challenging than tables or cabinets, and for that reason, designing and making (a good) chair is daunting to some and irresistible to others. That is one of the reasons that chairs are considered iconic.
Many architects have designed chairs as a way of demonstrating their talent and ability with the three dimensional structural form-on a small scale.

One of the things that distinguish this chair from other similarly refined, wood, industrial designs is the candid way in which the designers depict the production process. We see no photos of mythical craftsmen with hand planes and chisels, or fine toothed Japanese pull saws. All we see are the chair parts being carved by a five axis cnc router.
In fact, I have asked myself recently, when I see the stereotypical depiction of the traditional woodworker pushing a hand plane with fine shavings falling to the floor; do people today recognize these tools and processes anymore? Sure, many still do, but in this digital age, with the loss of what used to be called “vocational training” or shop class in schools and people growing up in high density urban situations more people may be able to understand the image of automation than the image of hand woodwork.





How does automation in woodworking affect the studio furniture maker? Is it a threat or an opportunity? Is it a force against which they cannot compete? When you form a team made up of the best designers and technicians using the best software and automated machinery with the advantages of mass production, combine that with the cheapest labour markets, the most effective marketing and distribution, it doesn’t look promising.
However, things are much more complex……………..to be continued.

www.francislemieux.com

www.franksmith.ca

WORKSHOP SPACE IN VANCOUVER

There was a time not long ago, say twenty or twenty five years ago when investing in real estate by buying a workshop space was a realistic part of the business / retirement plan for small trades shops like woodworkers, metalworkers, upholsterers etc.
Unless you have a big pile of cash, those days are gone.
Here is an example of what you might get today, and what you can expect to pay for it. This building is in East Vancouver, where most small woodworking businesses are located. It is close to 1000 Parker, a huge old furniture factory now divided into many small units and rented to numerous artists and craftspeople.

Francis Lemieux www.francislemieux.com

GREEN, OR JUST PLAIN SILLY?

On a recent trip to Victoria BC a friend took me to visit a few of the local retailers specializing in modern wood furniture. One of those was called Design House. When we arrived at their downtown location we found that the store had recently changed hands. Unfortunately, I did not make a note of the new name, but the product line is similar, with mostly imported products and a few locally produced pieces.
What was most interesting about this store was the lengthy sales pitch delivered by the salesperson who welcomed us. She emphasized that a specific chair although made in China was made from FSC certified wood. I did not ask to see the chain of custody documentation and would have been surprised if she were able to produce it. The chair in question was a wood frame lounge chair with upholstered seat and back.
I guess this is a pretty typical case of “green washing”. An attempt is made to make the product appear to be a more environmentally responsible choice for the purchaser by drawing their attention to a relatively insignificant “green” factor in its production in order to distract them from considering all of the other negative environmental and social implications of producing it in unknown conditions using other unknown materials, foam and fabric, then shipping it half way around the globe with all the resulting emissions.
Another interesting fact she offered was that many of the “Italian” products they sell are actually made in China. The wood is shipped from North America to China where the product is manufactured; the product is then shipped to Italy and from there shipped to international distributors as an Italian design.
According to Stewart Brand in the “Whole Earth Discipline”, commercial shipping is responsible for 4 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Furniture is bulky and takes up a lot of container space.
Clearly, whether or not the wood in this furniture is sourced from a supplier that employs appropriate standards as defined by FSC is irrelevant when all the other environmental factors involved in its production and distribution are considered.
According to Jeff Rubin in “Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller”, all of this silliness will come to an end when the cost of oil rises to the point where it has the effect of prohibitive import duties. Apparently that future is not far off. And when it comes, suggests Rubin we will return to manufacturing things closer to home.
Notwithstanding all of the negative economic implications of more expensive oil, this could be a positive thing for woodworkers and furniture makers as well as the environment.
Sourcing manufactured products closer to home in considered the better environmental choice and furniture is a product that can be manufactured almost anywhere. The main reason our furniture comes from distant locations is because under current conditions, it is cheaper. If those conditions change and it becomes more competitive to produce it locally that should cause resurgence for the local industry.
It will never be practical to produce all manufactured products locally. Some things like steel production need to be done on a large scale. But furniture is a simple product that can be produced by small manufacturers with minimal technology.
Of course, if the cheap, throw away furniture now being manufactured in countries like China, Indonesia and Vietnam is no longer available due to the rising cost of oil, people here will have to pay higher prices for furniture. This can be offset by value, higher quality products that last longer. For those who cannot afford new higher quality domestically produced furniture there will be the re-sale or second hand option. Many people change their furniture when they change their living situation, or simply when they tire of it. But unlike disposable furniture they will be able to re-purpose it through consignment stores or internet sites.
Currently we have a finite supply of used furniture available to us. Almost none of it is domestically produced, that stuff is long gone, and there is virtually no resale value in the cheap imported product available through stores such as Ikea. Most quality re-sale or used furniture on offer is mid-century Danish Teak or similar products. Much of it is being imported in bulk from Denmark. Importing this used furniture will no longer be practical or necessary as this market will also be affected by the higher cost of oil.

Francis Lemieux

www.francislemieux

www.franksmith.ca

THE WOOD CO-OP GALLERY

As I write this The Wood Co-op is in the process of shutting down, permanently.
Here is the story in a nutshell. (a big nutshell)

This early history is taken word-for-word from “The Wood Co-op Guide for Directors 2009”.

Early History
Following a series of telephone conferences (which included representatives of small wood businesses and business-associations), a two-day meeting of some fifty interested persons was organized in 1998 by the Value Added Business Unit of Forest Renewal BC. When this meeting was held in Vancouver (at the University of British Columbia forestry quadrant), the idea of a self-sustaining, legally incorporated co-operative was advocated by forestry-economics consultant Ian Leask and by a sizable number of the participants who had come in from various regions of the province for the meeting.
Small wood businesses were regarded as owner-operated ones, with generally anywhere from one to five employees (and with ownership by as few as one but possibly equal to the number of all hands-on employees). These businesses might include ones making furniture (indoor or outdoor), home accents, specialty lumber, secondary-processed wood materials, or smaller items like giftware, toys, artful craft objects etc. The participants in the 1998 meeting were keenly aware of the disadvantaged commercial position of small wood businesses outside of the Lower Mainland.
Key areas of interest included market access, marketing information, and goods –and services-purchasing programs. By the end of the second day of this gathering, an ad hoc founding committee sat and resolved to proceed toward the establishment of this sort of organization.
Conceptualization and incorporation steps required some weeks. Incorporation as “British Columbia Associations cooperative of Small Wood Businesses” was achieved by April 1999. The first directors on the board both represented woodworking organizations from around the province, and they consulted with individual small woodworking businesses. Hence the initial concept of the Wood Co-op was inclusive of all regions of the province.
A bit more than a year after incorporation, the Wood Co-op secured a good location for a retail sales outlet. In July 2000, the Co-op opened the Wood Co-op Gallery – the first important service-providing project for Co-op members and associate members, and the first of the Co-op’s business functions.
The Wood Co-op received “seed money” from Forest Renewal BC to establish itself and set up its first commercial enterprise on the secured business site on Granville Island, in Vancouver. However, the Co-op Board realized that governments and political climate are subject to change and that the principle of financial self-reliance should guide the Co-op’s future path. Hence, the Wood Co-op Gallery and any other commercial enterprises undertaken by the Wood Co-op are expected to be self sustaining and even to earn net revenue which can be used to cover the Co-op’s expenses and, ideally, fund the Co-op’s further activities.

Reflecting on this document, a few things stand out and need to be clarified for their current significance.
Forest Renewal BC was an entity or initiative of the NDP BC government of the time. I believe the premier was Mike Harcourt and the minister of forests was Andrew Petter (the now-new president of Simon Fraser University) It was created to stimulate value added forestry initiatives in BC. Some of the other things that it did that I am aware of were to create a furniture design program at Kootenay School of the Arts, and to subsidize the membership fee for BC Wood Specialties so that any company with $50.00 per year could join. Those were the good old days!

The Wood Co-op Gallery, the entity that we are currently lamenting the loss of, was always a project of the Wood Co-op organization. As it turns out, it was the only project of this organization.
The board of directors of the Wood Co-op were not the directors of the Wood Co-op Gallery. The Wood Co-op Gallery had no board of directors, but the board of directors of The Wood Co-op directed The Wood Co-op Gallery. Sound confusing? It was. It should also be pointed out that the Wood Co-op was not made up of individual artists and people making things out of wood, but by member organizations, such as the Fraser Valley Woodworkers Guild and the Vancouver Island Woodworkers Guild. Individual woodworkers had almost no involvement in the operations of the Wood Co-op Gallery, unless they were on the board of The Wood Co-op.
Another point is that the site “secured” on Granville Island was anything but secure. This site, which must be one of the prime retail locations in Vancouver was stumbled upon by happenstance. The Wood Co-op Gallery was given this space on a month to month rental agreement that lasted for about nine years. The space had formerly been used as an information centre and came complete with fixtures. It was an incredible stroke of luck for The Wood Co-op, and The Wood Co-op Gallery.
When the Wood Co-op Gallery first set up shop in this Granville Island location it was mostly stocked with wood products from the rural areas of BC. There was virtually no representation from the lower mainland which reflected the vision of the Wood Co-op organization at the time.
Eventually, under the direction of Laura Friesen, who was gallery director for the time the gallery existed on Granville Island the wood products on offer evolved to reflect the tastes of the clientele. Laura encouraged artists to refine their designs to reflect an international, modern perspective. The gallery also undertook various initiatives with Emily Carr University of Art + Design, with special wood product design exhibitions.

Over time, I think that the market honed the product mix in the Wood Co-op Gallery, things that were shipped from various parts of the province that did not sell after an agreed upon time period were shipped back to the maker. Products that were successfully sold were re-stocked. Through this process, the product mix was refined.
The Co-op was always aware of the insecurity of its location and had been in negotiation with the management of Granville Island to secure a more permanent location on Railspur Street. The partial roof collapse during a snow storm was the single event that lead to the ultimate demise of the gallery. When this happened the gallery was given two weeks to vacate. Granville Island management offered The Wood Co-op a temporary space approximately 10% the size of its original location in the Netloft building. They also provided office space in the Railspur Street location.
Ultimately, The Wood Co-op was unable to come to an agreement with Granville Island to renovate and occupy the Railspur location, leaving two options; fold or move off Granville Island. It was decided to find a location near Granville Island for the larger work such as furniture and wall pieces and to retain the small Netloft location on Granville Island to exhibit the smaller works. It was hoped that this arrangement would help to direct clientele from Granville Island to the new location, as well as continuing to serve the tourist clientele interested in smaller items.
The timing could not have been worse. The new gallery on 6th Avenue was opened in mid November, a very slow month for furniture. The economy was in recession, especially effecting discretionary spending and Vancouver was competely distracted by the upcoming winter olympics. It was hoped that the large number of olympic visitors to Granville Island would be interested in locally produced unique products, but instead, some two hundred and fifty thousand people spent all their money on food, booze and olympic souvenirs. The areas around the olympic venues were packed with people and the rest of the city was dead.

The approximately nine years of success of The Wood Co-op Gallery can be attributed mostly to the prime Granville Island location. The customers just rolled in the door and the staff served them.
The long and short of it is that the loss of the Wood Co-op Gallery is a significant loss for artists even remotely related to wood in Vancouver and to the public, both local and visiting.
Whether such a thing can be re-created in the future seems unlikely. It was born by serendipity and killed by accident.
I think the value of the institution to the cultural and economic diversity of Vancouver and British Columbia is without question, but whether that will ever be officially recognized by the powers that be, or will be, who knows?

Here are a few comments from people on the loss of The Wood Co-op Gallery.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=389390343082&ref=mf

This is very sad news indeed, particularly coming when studio
furniture is finally getting serious profile. The Coop has done a
huge amount to educate the public in this new cultural industry; all
of us in the business will be the poorer for their demise.

regards, Celia
--
Celia Duthie
Salt Spring Woodworks
125 Churchill Road
Salt Spring Island, BC
V8K 2R3 / 250-537-9606
www.saltspringwoodworks.com

As more comments come in I will add them to this post.
Francis Lemieux