Fine Furniture Exhibition Emerges from the California Lost Coast

This May, the craftspeople from the College of the Redwoods Fine Woodworking program will be emerging from the wooded seclusion of the North Coast to let the entire Bay Area in on one of furniture making’s best-kept secrets.   For over 30 years the school has quietly been shaping students into some of the finest furniture makers in the country. People come from all over the world to attend this intensive, nine hour a day, six day a week program, spending nine months in the small town of Fort Bragg obsessively dedicating themselves to quality and sensitivity in craft through the curriculum and values established by James Krenov.  The program receives little in the way of fanfare or exposure outside of Mendocino County although it is well-known in the woodworking community. At last summer’s Association of Woodworking and Furnishing Suppliers national convention in Las Vegas, students from the program won every category they entered in the AWFS Fresh Wood competition, in what Woodworker West magazine described as “a sweep.”   Students from the program think it’s high time to let more people in on their well-kept secret. They believe the best way to do this is to let their work speak for itself. From May 23rd through May 31st students from the program will host Handmade/Mindmade at the Dogpatch Café and Gallery, 2295 3rd Street in San Francisco with an opening reception on Friday May 23rd from 6 to 8pm. The work on display will be offered for sale. Actor, writer, and woodworker Nick Offerman, widely known for his role as Ron Swanson in the acclaimed NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation, describes furniture from the CR Fine Woodworking program as "a charismatic throwback to the days when hand-crafted quality commanded the respect it deserves, both for its practical strength as well as its enduring beauty. We could use a great many more golden American craftspeople such as them." Handmade/Mindmade Fine Furniture Exhibition Dogpatch Café and Gallery 2295 3rd Street San Francisco, CA 94107 Open daily May 23 through May 31, 9 AM to 6 PM Reception May 23 6-8 PM More information on the exhibition is available at www.handmademindmade.com or by calling Program Director, Laura Mays at 707-367-2285.