Observations from the Woodshop

THE MEANDERING CHAIR

 

Our Journey Begins

          I’ve always enjoyed meandering around.  I’ve never been one to conform to the straight and narrow path. Interstates bore me. Family trips were often plotted along secondary roads, which sometimes took twice as long, and often provoked family mutinies, but also led to a number of interesting sites and experiences.
The kids are grown now, and my wife is not always anxious to get back in the car after a long week of commuting, so I have decided to take an alternative companion-a “Meander” chair- on some side trips. Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing our adventures with you.

Our Story Begins: An Evening with Bill and Patti

   The first trip with the chair was to visit some neighbors for a lovely summer supper. These folks live a ways, “off the hard road” and the drive includes crossing  a bridge that my wife finds rather scary. Their house lies in a meadow near the end of the road. Bill and Patti have built what looks like a regional vegetable jail to protect their garden from the deer and rabbits. Here we see Patti in the garden,  relaxing in the chair, surrounded by lillies, tomatoes and basil. The chair also inspired them to reenact Bill’s marriage proposal.

    Patti is a ceramic artist and art instructor and we see her work outside in the form of unique bird baths and inside in the form of vases, plates, and bowls, that add an elegant touch to the meal. Patti sometimes processes native West Virginia clay in her rural studio. View some of her art at; http://traceforkpottery.org/. She’s also in the process of creating a production line that we are looking forward to seeing in it’s finished form.

New Pieces

Sometimes it works out that pieces I design for a particular customer come out so nicely that we end up adding them to one of our collections.  We are just finishing up some furniture for a law office in Charleston, West Virginia, and as part of that project we did two desks that I am very happy with, and though I may make some slight changes in them I think that they are going to end up being added to our “Meander” line of work.

Executive desk 84″ wide x 36″ deep x 30″ tall in walnut and butternut

Computer Desk 72″ wide x 24″ deep x 30″ tall in walnut and butternut

See ya Later

Re: Emma Gets a Real Job

By Emma Austin

I thought I was going to run out of here, waving as I went, leaving a trail of sawdust behind.  I mean, this was certainly never my dream job…I really did get named “Worst Employee Ever”.  I won’t deny that.  Plus, with our German lineage, I didn’t think we did this sad, talk about our feelings kind of stuff.  However, I am sad to leave.  I have really enjoyed working for my Dad.  I have enjoyed designing marketing materials and discovering skills I didn’t know I had.  (Although I still don’t think I have created anything special.)  I also enjoyed our little moments of collaboration, even though some of them really didn’t get us anywhere.  Most of all, though, I enjoyed all of the fun we have had in the office.  My Dad and I have spent a lot of time laughing- laughing at the fact that I can be a really terrible employee, laughing at his extreme lack of computer skills, and laughing at the weird things we discovered on the internet when we really should have been working.  This job was a learning experience, it was a great opportunity to spend time with my Dad, and it was a lot of fun.  I can say that there are a lot of things I won’t miss about working at Probst Furniture Makers, but I will miss working for my Dad. 

But, hey, I do live kind of close by, so if you ever have a computer problem, or find a really funny video, just give me a call.  If not, I will at least see you at Christmas. 

Dad, thanks for putting up with me, thanks for all of the opportunities, and thanks for all the fun.  I love you.

And, in the words of Eddie Austin, “Welp, see ya later!”

Emma Gets a real Job

It’s hard to keep this from being personal. I mean when it comes right down to it, this is a personal business. That last few days I have been getting nostalgic, and a bit sad. My daughter Emma, after six years of college has landed a real job in the local school system as a speech therapist, which means that she will no longer need her part time job here.
I don’t remember exactly when Emma started working here, but I do know that it didn’t get off to a great start. She needed summer work, and I thought I could find something for her to do here. Problem was, I really didn’t know what that something might be, and when it came right down to it, she really didn’t have any skills that we could use here. So, I put her to work cleaning, doing a little work on the books, and sometimes some oiling of furniture parts. Thing was, she really wasn’t much enjoying the jobs I found for her, and even sometimes refused to try particular tasks. At one point that first summer I awarded her with the “Worst Employee of Probst Furniture Ever”, which if you knew some of the employees I’ve had over the years, is pretty bad.
Funny thing is, we just hadn’t discovered Emma’s talents. We started working together on materials for our marketing, brochures, postcards, catalogs, and the like, and discovered that Emma was really quite good at this. She is artistic, writes well, and has a good sense of layout and composition. She designed two catalogs for me, and I don’t know how many times I have been asked as to who designed them, with the person asking being surprised that they weren’t done by a professional . At this point, she has done our catalogs, our new website, our newsletter, our blog, and several other smaller promotional pieces.
My getting sad though, has nothing to do with loosing Emma as an employee. There was a point when I realized that we worked pretty well together and that I valued and respected her input. I had a rare opportunity to work with my daughter as she grew from a child, to a talented, accomplished, adult, and it is something I will always treasure.
As a sort of postscript, it’s not like Emma is moving away. I mean she only lives like five minutes from here. The thing is, she just isn’t going to need this job anymore. Hopefully though, I will still be able to get her in here from time to time. The office may fall apart without her.

Christmas in July

By Emma Austin

So, I walked into the office this morning to find the furniture shoved into the middle of the room.  “What the heck is going on?”  And then I turned and saw the open window where the air conditioner used to be, the old air conditioner on the floor.  “Are you serious?!”  I ran to the window that looks out into the parking lot.  Sure enough, there was a big blue box in the back of Dad’s truck.  I immediately emailed my Mom to inquire about his mental health status.  We aren’t really sure what brought about this change, but hey, we aren’t going to argue with it.  Who knows what else may come of this…Meanwhile, I am just going to enjoy the cool air.

This was making me slightly nervous…

Isn’t it beautiful?!

Here’s to doing something from your to-do list today (like purchasing a beautiful piece of handmade furniture).

Lumber

We use the best hardwood lumber that we can find, so as you can imagine, our lumber suppliers are very important to us.  A few years ago, I was looking for a new supplier for cherry, and I gave Lou Irion (of Irion Lumber) a call.  I told him what I was looking for and he suggested that I start with a small order to see if I was happy with what they had to offer.  From the day I received that first shipment, I have never looked back. 

First of all, they just have great lumber.  We use more cherry than anything else, and their cherry is second to none.  It has good color, minimal defects, and lots of character.  One of my favorite things about Irion Lumber is that when they have a really good log, they will saw it and put it up as a flitch.  A flitch is a group of boards that were kept together as they came from the log.  We like to use flitch-cut material because it makes for great color and grain matches in our table tops.  All of our dining table tops are made from flitch-matched boards.

 Boards stacked in their flitches

Irion Lumber is also an outstanding company to do business with.  More than once I have received the following phone call, “Jim, I have someone coming in that is not a regular customer.  They are interested in 5/4 cherry, and we don’t have a lot of it at the moment.  If you are going to be needing any soon, I won’t sell them any.”  That’s what I call customer service and loyalty to your customers.

    

Lumber arrives from Irion Lumber

Picture Day (Part 1)

This first edition of Events from Picture Day is brought to you by Emma.

While updating the website and working on the blog, we came to the realization that we desperately needed to take new pictures of the shop and the employees.  We were spending a little too much time trying to crop former employees out of pictures that weren’t that great to start with.  So, with my small point and shoot camera in tow, we declared it “Shop Picture Day”. 

“Ok men, off to work.  Just pretend I’m not here.”

“Ok, we’ll try this again…”

That’s a nice face, Eddie.

Are we having a stare down?  We may be here all day (sigh).

Ok, no one is going to believe that you are this happy to be working in a hot, dusty woodshop.

 And finally…

 

Hard at work.

What did I get myself into?

Guest Blog

by Emma Austin, Office Assisstant, Jim’s daughter, Eddie’s wife

In some ways it seems very strange that I, a soon-to-be Speech-Language Pathologist, ended up working at Probst Furniture Makers.  I started working for my Dad the summer after my second year of college.  At the time, it seemed like a dream job in many ways.  I mean, what 19-year-old girl would turn down the opportunity to work just yards away from her boyfriend and eat lunch with him everyday, have 3-day weekends, and have the ability to request off anytime she wanted?  However, I quickly learned that there were a few downsides to the job.  I spent my first days cleaning the office that I would share with my Dad.  We dusted surfaces that had not been cleaned for decades and swept mouse turds out of the corners.  My jobs consisted of trying to balance the checkbook that never balanced, teaching my Dad how to use the computer, and attempting to decode his filing system, which consisted of two folders: “stuff” and “important stuff”.  The overall office environment was not great either.  On the days that I decided I could no longer bear the 90 degree weather, I sat shivering next to the 20-year-old window air conditioner that rattled so loudly it had to be turned off during phone calls.  The dust was so thick that not only could I not keep anything clean for a day, but I also developed bronchitis.  I began to have second thoughts about my summer commitment.

However, things improved as I began to work on marketing and found that I enjoyed designing our catalog and other materials.  Over the past few years, that is the one aspect of my job that has stuck- I eventually protested cleaning, although I do still file (the system has come a long way since I took over the office organization).

So here I am, spending another summer at Probst Furniture Makers.  I continue to insist that it will be my last (I start a real job, as a Speech-Language Pathologist, in the Fall).  It has been fun and challenging and gross, but overall, I am glad I have worked here.  I have been able to see this side of my Dad and the business that I wouldn’t have known otherwise.  I have enjoyed being a part of this business and developing somewhat of an understanding of why my Dad and my husband (Eddie) enjoy furniture making so much.  While I am very ready to focus on my own career, I know that I will still be around to help as needed.  I also have a very strong feeling that furniture making will continue to be part of my life as Eddie’s business grows.

Meander

         I like to design lines, or series of furniture. For one thing, it’s a challenge, and I like challenges. I also think it’s good business.  I think that, because if a customer buys a piece of furniture from me, they can, down the road, select something from our offerings that is designed to go with the work they bought previously.  
         “Meander” is our newest line. As with other collections I have designed, I try to start with an element or two, and incorporate them into as many different pieces as possible.  With “Meander” the first element is the “S” curve which is used over and over again in the line.  Also used in this collection are tops that vary in thickness by an upward sweeping curve starting thicker in the center and thinning towards each end.  Sometimes, one has to be careful though, and not get too carried away with trying to find a way to use the same design elements in every piece as it can sometimes end up with things looking forced. 
       ”Meander” has been awhile in development.  I had gotten a few pieces designed when my father fell ill, and his illness and passing  shoved it’s importance pretty far to the backburner, so to speak.  It also seems that I am never finished with designing a line as it always seems that there are pieces that could be added. I’m pretty happy with the start we have with it though.