Daniel Mack Rustic Furnishings, Inc., is a small design and production studio in Warwick, New York about 60 miles from New York City. Daniel Mack, the principal designer-maker, started doing this work in 1978. It follows the strict principles of imagination and intuition.
Dan works on major interior architectural projects using natural materials as columns, beams, stairways, railings and wall treatments. He works on exterior projects like pergolas, arbors, fencing and even a treehouse!
He works with a very talented group of other rustics. He still makes some furniture. All work is commissioned, but there are always a dozen or so finished pieces on hand. There are often rustic building materials – birch bark, peeled logs, forked trees – available for sale.
Balancing the rustic construction work, Dan does research on the powers of natural materials. He is working on a series of Imaginal Furnishings: objects which resemble furniture and tools, but perform ambiguous and changing functions. He has been working for several years on a series, The Anima. These are carvings from bark he collects along the Hudson River. They are on a new website. He is also working on a series of Imaginal Tools based on the assumption that you first make the tool, then the task for which it is needed will appear.
Dan teaches about working with natural materials at The Omega Institute Rhinebeck, NY, his own studio, the Woodlander Gatherings and various arts and craft centers. His 6th and 7th books come out in June '08.
News
- Mid-May,2008: I now have copies of my two new books: The Adirondack Chair and The Hammock. You can get them from me, signed, for $20 each by Priority Mail or two books, signed, for $36, by Priority Mail. PayPal to rustic@warwick.net or a check to me at 14 Welling Ave Warwick, NY 10990
- Big Book Season. Besides my two new books which come out next month, I'm in a few others just hitting the market: 500 Chairs and Guys and Garages
- Till September, 2008: One of my "Rugbeater" Chairs from the Memory Series is at the National Design Museum, in New York.
- Till October, 2008 The Anima Series is at the Ram Dass Library at Omega in Rhinebeck and online at Fine Art America.
- Pictures and comments about recent Woodlander Gatherings. I'm now planning this year's Warwick Gathering for mid August. Alchemy is still an interest and I'm talking with local blacksmiths and metalworkers. Let me know your interests.
- In late September, 2007, I was working with three Mayan Women's Artisan Collectives in the Yucatan to help develop rustic items from trees downed by Hurricanes Wilma and Dean. Aid to Artisans was one of the three sponsoring organizations.
- Wonderful connection with Kathleen Jenk's Myth*ing Links
Rustic Work: Current
- a modernist loggish house in Connecticut, a four-year project
- a 10' wispy willow sofa for a restaurant in Chicago with Tor Faegere
- more buck fencing
- a few lighting constructions from driftwood and peeled yew
Recently Finished
- an 8' driftwood bench for California
- two Creative Workshops in the Oncology Support program at Benedictine Hospital in Kingston, NY. I'll do two more in September
- 3-day Rustic Tutorial at my studio
- 1-day Intro to Working Rustic, Brookfield, CT
- a peeled Log Bed with Twigz
- Pair of Peeled Arm Chairs, like ones I did in 1986
- Cedar Post, Beam and Rail Work with Twigz
- 16' x 20' 2-story Tree House, 20' up a Big Sycamore in NJ
- a driftwood and rope handrail in a near-by NJ lakeside home.
- ongoing "rustification" of a pre-school in Basking Ridge, NJ with Twigz
Events
| 2008 | |
| April-October | Anima on Display at Ram Dass Library at The Omega Institute, Rhinebeck, NY. Visitors welcome |
June 8-13 |
5-day Rustic Intro:Omega Institute, Rhinebeck, NY |
| June 15 | Dan's new books, The Adirondack Chair and The Hammock are published |
| July 11-13 | Woodlanders Gathering, Mineral Point, WI |
July 14 7-9PM |
2-hr Workshop: Marking the Interior Landscape, part of the Warwick Arts Festival, $30 |
| August 9 | Book signing, Island Bound Books, Block Island, RI |
| August 15-17 | Woodlanders Gathering, Warwick, NY limit 25-30 people |
| September 13 and 20 10:30-12:30 |
Artists Trading Cards and Making Imaginal Tools: Benedictine Hospital, Kingston, NY. For people who have experienced breast cancer. Details: dblaha@benedictine.org |
