Westport in Brief!
EverythingWestport.com
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Quick Article Index . . .
Glitz, Glamour &
Gouache
Odds and ends plus imagination and talent
equal artisan furniture.
Glitz, Glamour & Gouache
EverythingWestport.com
Friday, November 20, 2009 Sticks, Stones and
Stars is a fairy tale come true. Magical
dragonflies zipping thru vibrant fields of blue and surreal, and stuff
decorated with impossible colors. Clocks twisted in frozen time as visitors
pass ever-so-briefly through this Alice in Wonderland landscape. Look at me.
Desire me. Buy me. You may want to bring your credit card before you dart
down this rabbit hole.
Coming
on December 12th:
Join Sticks, Stones & Stars in Celebrating their Second Anniversary and Marguerites’ 11th Anniversary!
From the left: artisans James
Mauck, Harmony Jusseaume, Barbara Chadwick,
Heather Gavriluk, and Elizabeth Barrett.
o
Odds and ends plus imagination and talent equal artisan
furniture. EverythingWestport.com Sunday,
November 22, 2009
He
takes one old coffee table top, add the step legs from a horse “Original,
and one-of-a-kind,” the proprietor of Westport’s newest artisan studio said
with a disarming smile. That's
the idea behind Busted Stuff, a
new workshop tucked just to the side of Partner's Village Store in Westport.
Located in the 1878 carriage house of the former Luther Bowman property, the retail
shop is the work of artisan Nate Edgcomb and his son Andrew. All
of the pieces are unique works "created with collections of vintage
ephemera, gathered from old barn haylofts and special hiding places around
New England," Edgcomb said. You
may be tempted to call Edgcomb an antique restorer, or a furniture
refurbisher. You may even be tempted to label him a junkyard artist, a
provider of curious creations from bits and scraps. Resist
all these temptations. The
truth of the matter is that Nate Edgcombe is a very imaginative builder of classic
artisan furniture, a purveyor of extraordinary works of art made out of
ordinary, cast-away materials; other men’s trash has become his treasure. “They
call me the “blendmaster” Edgcomb said. “But it’s an artistic process all the
way. Repurposed vintage furniture with an artisan’s touch” Inside
the workshop/retail store are both completed pieces and pieces in progress.
They also will build a custom piece to fit any special space from their
collection of treasures. You choose or contribute the elements, they build to
suit. “Custom projects encourage a lot of experimenting,” Edgcomb said. “I’ve
been doing this for 15 years and know-how plays a large role.” A
New Hampshire transplant, Mr. Edgcomb worked as an independent contractor for
years and has been building furniture of various styles since learning from
his father starting at age 5. He now works mainly from his workshop at his
home in Westport.
From the left: (1) Busted Stuff is right beside
Partners Village Store and Kitchen in the 1878 carriage house; (2) inside the
workshop/retail store are both completed pieces and pieces in progress; and
(3) this couple from Little Compton wandered into Busted Stuff and got the
tour of their life. "I
am currently working on a narrow pine table 90 inches long, 13 inches wide -
the top is all one piece of pine - that a customer wants to fit behind her
couch. You can't find furniture like that anywhere. It has to be custom Made.
Plus I am using 150 year-old pumpkin pine (salvaged from an early 1800s barn)
which is totally non-existent these days. Editor’s note: Pumpkin pine are
boards naturally aged to a yellowish/orange luster over a period of 75 – 100
years. Theirs
is "green" ecologically-friendly work because everything they use
is recycled from something else. "That's correct,” Edgcomb said. “Most
of what I salvaged was headed to the dumpster
because no one really has the time, tools or tolerance to do anything with
it. But we have been "recyclers” all our lives and love to participate
any way we can in the green revolution.”
Above: Part of Nate Edgcomb’s inventory at his home
workshop. A
couple from Little Compton sort of stumbled across Edgcomb’s Busted Stuff on Sunday
looking for a computer workstation with an antique look. We all got invited
over to his Main Road workshop, a wonderfully-old Westport residence with
outbuildings down a very long and winding lane, for an introspective look-see
at his collection of ‘inventory,’ and a dissertation on the ingenious process
involving the customer and creator hand-picking the elements for a custom
piece. “We
have to go home and sort out all the options Nate gave us today,” the Little
Compton couple said.
At his home workshop with custom build clients,
engaging them with his spontaneous creativity, Nate is inspired by each
unique piece of vintage ephemera he touches. His secret may be found in the
visual process of natural selection, something most of us view in awe of
inventive people. Who
would have thought there’d be so many wonderful choices in acquiring an
antique-looking computer workstation? “There’s
a little bit of magic in every element we use; patina, hardware, wood
selection, finishing. “Putting them together and making them work is what I
do best,” said the blendmaster. - - - - - End - - -
- - © 2009 Community
Events of Westport All rights
reserved. |
