Artisans show off-fine-grained skills at Fine Woodwork Show – Berkshire Eagle

By Dick Lindsay, The Berkshire Eagle

STOCKBRIDGE — Joshua Kanter was determined to carve out a new career for himself in the Berkshires.

After years of set design and renovation work in New York City, the Brooklyn resident and his wife, Kris Kanter, moved to Housatonic in 2004 where he established JK Customer Furniture and Design.

The Kanters found the country setting more conducive to the creative woodworking process than the city life.

“The ability to have a workspace and home in the same place is cheaper than in the city where you have to rent space separately,” Joshua said. “I wanted to express myself in a different medium; I ultimately wanted to make furniture.”

Mr. Kanter was among the 16 area woodworking artisans displaying their skills and artistic, wooden household items at the annual Fine Woodwork Show & Silent Auction at the Berkshire Botanical Garden. Sponsored by the 52-member Berkshire Woodworkers Guild, the weekendlong event also featured works from three guild scholarship recipients from 2018. Funded by the silent auction, the scholarship program this year doled out $6,500 worth of tuition assistance to five college or trade school woodworking students.

One of last year’s scholarship winners, Caity Fiero, recently graduated from the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine, after seven years in fashion design. She immediately landed a job in a small woodworking business in her home town of Boothbay, Maine.

“I like doing physical work. I always felt I had a natural handiness,” Fiero said. “I felt my happy place was in the [woodworking] shops.”

Emily Tillotson took her 2018 scholarship and headed west to Oakland, Calif., where she attends The Krenov School & The Very Human Art of Fine Woodworking. Compelled to drive across country to attend the show, the Lexington native, upon graduation, plans a return to the commonwealth to start her new career.

“I’m really grateful for the guild. I enjoy meeting everybody and learning new skills,” she said. “This is about networking when I come back to Western Mass.”

Article Continues After These Ads

The Berkshire Woodworkers Guild is a nonprofit association of professional and amateur woodworkers who share expertise and promote the awareness, benefits and availability of custom woodworking, according to guild president Jim Law.

“Our regular meetings spur a lot of people to contribute by sharing a technique or a tool others may not use,” he said. “It’s making better woodworkers out of people who don’t make a living at it.”

The backgrounds and experience of guild members includes cabinetmakers, boat builders, sculptors, house builders, suppliers of wood products, wood turners and makers of musical instruments.

The craftsmanship can be elegant, unique with a goal for the end product to be useful around the home or office.

“I want to make furniture that’s delightful to look at and functional. I want a chair that’s comfortable to sit in,” said Paul St. Germaine of New Lebanon, N.Y.

From cherry and mahogany to cedar and white pine, the timber of choice varies for the guild members.

Bob Gentile used ash to create an Adirondack-style chair, the back and seat cushioned, with the arms carved at each end with clenched hands.

An Eagle reporter found it very comfortable and easy to get out of, in part, by pushing on the wooded fists. The chair is also a great conversation piece.

“I’ve had several people say the chair looks angry. If I was making it for a church, I would have had the hands do this,” Gentile said, holding his hand out, palm side up.

Dick Lindsay can be reached at rlindsay@berkshireeagle.com and 413-496-6233.

If you’d like to leave a comment (or a tip or a question) about this story with the editors, please
email us. We also welcome letters to the editor for publication; you can do that by
filling out our letters form and submitting it to the newsroom.