George Dart aka "The Col" is a regular contributor to Wood Central.

Eileen and I had the pleasure of stopping by his home and shop on the way through Philadelphia and onto Baltimore.

I was fortunate to get to see several pieces George has made for his home where he and Kathy have raise "Only" ten children.

Quotes are from George not me-and uh not Kathy :^)

These beautiful pieces are all in the Col's dining room.

I think my favorite is the Dining Table he made from an old Military Case.

After a hearty lunch of Soda and Philadelphia Hoagies we descended to the Shop.

George has a well equipped and well organized Shop. Two rooms allow George to execute pretty much any type of woodworking operation he desires.

This is the Power tool room  aka the "Norm Room"

George has all his major power tolls mounted on lockable casters which allows maximum flexibility of operation.

He also set aside an extended period of shop time construct individual wooden boxes for small power tools.

There was one tool George has with which  I was quite unfamiliar.

After scouting out the Power tool Room he had me take of my shoes and bow as we entered:

THE NEADERTHAL SHRINE

Here is where George has all his hand tools and associated accessories. As I witnessed in the "Norm Room" -organization is clear, clean and an apparent joy to behold.

It was a great couple of hours that went all too fast.

It was time to hit the road to Baltimore

The debut of the Baltimore Fine Furnishings Show was the weekend of May 2-3,2009. The show was held at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center in Downtown Baltimore.  I had no booth at this year's show although I did exhibit at the FFS in Milwaukee in 2006 and 2007. My review here is quite subjective. I am not privy to any sales or actual attendance figures.

Attendance was low. The number of exhibitors was small which I knew was going to be the case as the venue only allowed for 60 booths. There were 51 exhibitors listed in the program.

Overall, the quality of work  I observed was very good. I found a high concentration of furniture makers-but less in the way of art objects-ie pottery lighting etc. I left before any "Best of Show" awards were presented. As of Friday 5/8/09 at 12:00 noon there were still none announced. They may not give out any-not because work didn't warrant it but perhaps because theres was not enough variety to distinguish one from another.

Although the energy from attendees was really lacking, the venue was actually very pleasing. I did not get pictures that illustrate the set-up very well, but it was in a renovated downtown building and spread out over three levels. The result was a warm intimate setting- much better than the feeling of one stall after another as can be found in other venues. Still the lack of attendees meant you saw all the exhibitors standing around starring at and talking to one another. It was very hard to blend into the crowd and just kind of sneak from one booth to another. It didn't help that we were dressed up better than most of those that did attend. We looked like shoppers and drew the exhibitors out like magnets. I had to diffuse their hopes quickly and let them know I was just a furniture maker scouting things out.

Charles Todd- Mt. Airy Custom Furniture

Philadelphia

David Diaman-

Diaman Woodcrafters

Abingdon, MD

Period Furniture

David Stine Woodworking

Dow Illinois

The low attendance was disappointing but perhaps not totally unexpected. The economy is still rough and the mayor of Baltimore was apparently heard to have suggested people remain in their homes that weekend because of the Swine Flu. Now whether that could have exerted a large influence on possible attendees is fairly broad speculation. One exhibitor told me he had no sale or commissions from the show but was not discouraged. He said he had done well in Milwaukee and Providence in the past and would be at both shows this fall.

Remember these comments are subjective. I am not privy to any sales or actual attendance figures.  I hope the show garners attention both from attendees and exhibitors. In a tough economy this will be a challenge.

Here are three of the furnituremakers that were there to exhibit.

While we were in the Baltimore/Washington DC area Eileen and I stayed with two friends of mine from college days, and we attended services at an historic Washington D.C. Church.....