artisans-final

artful
state
We scoured New Jersey
to find the state’s most
talented artisans. Here
are seven who excel at
crafting unique pieces
for the home.
By Lauren Payne
Photographs by Michel Arnaud
Surrounded by the raw
materials of his craft, David
Robinson pauses while
finishing a rustic log table
with a spalted (or partially
decayed) maple surface.
The bench at left is bound
for a nature preserve in
Westchester County.
David Robinson
Rustic log furniture &
garden architecture
Trenton | 609-392-6469 | naturaledgerustic.com
Stroll through New York’s Central Park Zoo, and you’ll
likely see a bench built by David Robinson. Meander
in Cadwalader Park in Trenton, Llewellyn Park in West
Orange or the National Arboretum in Washington D.C.,
and you’ll come across his handmade gazebos. One of the
nation’s preeminent rustic log woodworkers, Robinson
crafts his pieces in a fascinatingly dilapidated, centuryold
foundry building in Trenton. It’s a space he’s occupied
for 20-some years, and it’s as distinctive as the pieces he
crafts there.
In 1986, after six years as a field supervisor for the
restoration of Central Park, he decided to launch his own
venture crafting the kinds of structures he had been maintaining.
“As a little kid, I was always making little wooden
go-carts and tree houses,” he says. His business started
with public-park commissions. Soon his clientele included
homeowners clamoring for his rustic gazebos, benches,
gates and pool arbors, as well as interior furnishings like
headboards, cabinets and tables. “I float between the art
world and the landscape-architecture world,” he says.
Although a few workers assist him on big projects,
Robinson essentially runs a one-man show—even tracking
down his raw materials, often with tractor and chain
saw. “I’m out in the woods two, three, four days a month,”
he says. “I’ve found myself 20 miles out a dirt road looking
for logs”—with permission, of course. State agents
sometimes call Robinson in when they are cutting back
trees. He salvages the interesting pieces. “It’s all very
green and proper,” he says. “It’s thinning the woods for
the property owner.”
Robinson works primarily in red cedar, but also mountain
laurel, locust, Osage orange and other woods with
character. “I let the pieces of wood be what they are,” he
says. “It is what it is, I’m just highlighting it.” For some
pieces, Robinson applies a water-based sealer; others he
leaves untreated. “People like them to turn a silvery color,”
he says. “That happens naturally.”
Robinson’s trademark bench sells for around $1,600.
His birdhouses, each different, sell for $50 to $300. His
latest commission is a picnic arbor at Buck Garden in Far
Hills. After that, who knows? “I don’t have a plan,” he says.
“I just respond to what comes my way. I’m kind of a spontaneous
kind of guy.”
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Chris Smith metal furnishings
Hackettstown | 908-850-1728 | craftfabricators.com
The son of an industrial metal worker, Chris Smith practices
his craft in an old barn attached to the 55-year-old
farmhouse he shares with his wife and two young daughters
in rural Hackettstown.
Smith, who works in brass, bronze, stainless steel, zinc,
copper, iron and other metals, doesn’t consider himself an
artist. “I used to be a professional motorcycle racer,” he
says. “Then we had kids, and I realized I had to make a living.”
He leans to a large degree on his wife and design manager,
Agnieszka, for help: “She’s the real artist. She does all
my sketches,” he says. “I can barely draw a stick figure.”
No matter. Smith handcrafts furniture—including
chairs, tables and lamps—as well as design elements, such
as railings, gates and fireplace screens.
Smith collaborates with designers and architects on most
projects. “I’ll go on a site visit and help people visualize how
something will fit in their space,” he says. Once all parties
agree on a direction, he handcrafts each piece himself. “I’m
the guy,” he says. “I don’t hand it off to a minion in a shop.”
Typical of the process is the copper hood in the photo
below. A custom-designed piece, it’s ready to be installed
in a new kitchen in New Vernon.
Still, Smith’s favorite pieces are the ones he designs on
his own, like the powder-coated, spring-steel chair featured
two years ago in Architectural Digest. Available in a
variety of colors, it sells on his website for $750.
“I don’t want everyone to have it,” says Smith. “It’s not a
Walmart thing.”
Anne Oshman adjusts tiles on a
boomerang table for Vladimir
Kagan Design Group’s showroom
in Manhattan (to-thetrade
only). Once the pieces
are in place, she’ll grout and
seal the surface. “I do whatever
I can to make it stronger, more
permanent,” she says.
Anne Oshman Mosaic Artist
Montclair | 973-222-6937 | anneoshman.com
Anne Oshman was at home with two young kids in a house
crawling with workmen when she got the impulse to try her
hand at mosaics. Taking tile scraps from the workers renovating
the bathrooms—she and her husband had relocated
to Montclair from Manhattan after the birth of their second
son—Oshman started assembling the broken bits into original
designs. “There were workmen everywhere, and I needed
an outlet,” she jokes. Some 27 years later, she is one of the
state’s top mosaic artists.
Oshman explored the medium for about five years
before taking a class to nail down the fine points. She had
the innate skills. “The process is very time consuming and
labor intensive,” she says. “You have to be meticulous.” As
for developing a creative eye, “I’ve had a lifelong love of gardening
and art.”
Oshman finds inspiration in everyday images in newspapers
and magazines and her own photographs. “There’s
delight in capturing details that would otherwise go unnoticed,”
she says. “I see the whole in the parts.”
Oshman works in the basement of her art-filled home,
using tile, glass or smalti, a material from Mexico that’s
“like marble chunks, but glass.” The tiles—called micro
mosaic—are tiny 3/8-inch squares, “like the stuff you played
with at camp,” she says. They allow for subtle shading and
representational imagery. Often, she cuts her materials
to create a soft line. The glass, which comes in 2-by-4-foot
sheets, and the smalti, need to be handcut. “I have seriously
cut my fingers,” she says. But, she explains, “I can’t wear
gloves. I have to touch it, feel it. It has to be perfect.”
While some of her projects are large installations—like
the wall of the Crescent Parking Deck in Montclair—she
primarily fashions pieces for the home, including mantels,
backsplashes, furniture, sculpture and fine art. Oshman
sells most of her work through her website, but also exhibits
in galleries and accepts private commissions.
Prices vary, depending on the work. Her cupcakes, a collection
started during the cupcake craze five or six years ago, run
$1,200 to $2,800. Fine-art mosaics generally sell for $2,000 to
$5,000. “My time commitment to a piece is related not only to
its size, but to the specific elements of the design,” Oshman
says. The more intricate the work, the more time it takes. “I’m
fully absorbed in the details.”
Chris Smith takes five in his
Hackettstown workshop.
“Some of these tools are over
100 years old,” he says. The
custom-designed copper
hood in the background is
bound for a new kitchen in
New Vernon. At right, one of
his powder-coated, springsteel
chairs.
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Joseph Nemeth fine art furniture
Ramsey | 917-586-7099 | tempestwoodworking.com
Joseph Nemeth had always enjoyed woodworking as a
hobby, but his career as a software developer, plus family
time with his wife and young daughter, left him little spare
time. When he suddenly found himself out of work in 2012,
time ceased to be an obstacle. “I’ve always wanted to create
something beautiful,” he says. “Being downsized gave me
that opportunity.”
Nemeth set up a garage workshop at his Ramsey home
and filled it with tools. “I’ve made a considerable investment,”
he says. Wanting to create a line of what he calls
“refined and rustic” art furniture, Nemeth began drawing
designs for tables, benches and chests on his iPad. Working
with domestic woods like walnut, cherry and maple,
accented with species such as buckeye burl from the Pacific
Northwest, he carefully crafted his earliest pieces to each
be unique. When he sold his first piece in November 2013—
a table he exhibited at a fine-furnishings show in Rhode
Island—he figured he was onto something.
The learning curve was steep. “It’s been a lot of trial and
error,” Nemeth says. He studied YouTube videos and the
website finewoodworking.com, but it wasn’t enough. So he
took instruction from Frank Klausz, a renowned, Hungarianborn,
New Jersey-based master cabinetmaker .
Nemeth now works daily in his garage workshop. He
doesn’t use stains, preferring the natural beauty of wood
espoused in the arts-and-crafts style that informs many of
his pieces. That means simple, decorative pieces, emphasizing
the natural qualities of the materials.
His favorite piece? The sapele and tiger-maple settee in
the photo below. “I love the curves, the arts-and-crafts style,
the peg through-tenons and the fact that the joints don’t
require glue,” he says.
At Nemeth’s second exhibition, the Philadelphia
Invitational Furniture Show in April, he sold a buckeye-burl
coffee table. The price: $3,400.
Nemeth named his business Tempest Woodworking.
“The whole idea originated after Superstorm Sandy,” he
says. “It’s about force of change, the idea of destroying one
thing, then creating another.” It represents what he does
with wood and his changing vocation.
“I would love to do this for the next 20 years,” he says.
“It’s a real privilege.”
Jay DeMauro in the midst
of sketching a design in
his Glen Rock workshop.
The orange square behind
him is an example
of églomisé. The pattern
was used as a backsplash
in a butler’s pantry in
Saddle River.
Jay DeMauro glass artist
Glen Rock | 201-444-3500 | artiqueglassstudio.com
Joseph Nemeth in his
garage workshop. The
tall cherry chest at right
carries a steep price tag
of $4,800 because of its
elaborate veneers and
graceful curvature. “I’m
trying to inspire people
with my work,” Nemeth
says. “Hopefully I can get
people to buy into my
aesthetics.”
A third-generation glass worker, Jay DeMauro learned
to cut glass when he was 13. As a college sophomore in
1987 , he started his own business, Artique Glass Studio.
“I thought it was a great way to do something creative
and artistic,” he says. Today, his workshop in an industrial
stretch of Glen Rock finds him busy creating custom
stained-glass windows, elaborate domed glass ceilings,
mirrored backsplashes and more. You name it, DeMauro
can craft it, and probably has.
Collaborating with builders, architects and interior
designers—almost all his work is through the trade—
DeMauro has perfected virtually every glass-making
technique. He creates antiqued mirror glass using a
chemical that tarnishes the silver; crafts gold (or silver)
metallic leaf designs on glass panels; and designs intricate
leaded-glass panels. Recently he began using a process
called églomisé, a technique of painting and gilding
glass from behind.
DeMauro’s glass panels function as backsplashes,
as insets in armoires or buffet doors, as glass cabinet
fronts, even as decoration on walls and ceilings. He
has crafted intricate glass ceilings that add drama to an
entry foyer. “That has to be done in the planning stages
of the house,” DeMauro says. “I work with the builder
from the beginning.”
It’s tough to put a time frame or a dollar amount on
his work, DeMauro explains, since every job is different.
“Most everything can be done in six to eight weeks,” he
says. “But a dome? That can take months to create.”
DeMauro has eight skilled individuals working alongside
him in his studio, but, he says, “I still design the stuff.”
Once crafted, the work must be transported and
installed. “It’s packed and crated, delivered one piece at
a time,” he says, assuring that his pieces rarely break.
“Glass is inherently strong, especially once it gets
installed,” he says.
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Rob Feinstein’s end tables
and coffee tables are
easily snapped together
using his unique bracketing
system. Some of the
brackets do double duty
as corners and legs. The
brackets also add a touch
of color to the wood veneer
pieces.
Rachael Grochowski felt artist
Montclair | 973-707-2081 | feltbyrg.com
Rachael Grochowski has a thing for felt. She loves its soft texture.
She loves that it’s eco-friendly and, since it’s 100 percent
wool, entirely renewable. She loves that it’s durable and moisture-resistant.
She loves it so much she spends hours every
week hand-stitching her felt tabletop pieces. “I’m such a visual
and textural person,” she says. “Felt in the hand fulfills that.”
At her mother’s urging, Grochowski started sewing at age
four and became an adept seamstress. She studied architecture
and opened her own firm, RHG Architecture + Design,
almost 12 years ago in Montclair. But the siren song of felt
continued to call. On a creative whim, she crafted some placemats
for herself. “I enjoyed the architecture and the materials,
so I picked up the needle and thread and felt,” she says.
In 2012, she launched a new enterprise named, simply, “felt.”
Using thick, industrial-grade felt, Grochowski hand-stitches
her pieces with three different stitching styles. The stitching
is carefully haphazard. The result: No two pieces are the same.
After crafting placemats, napkin rings, runners and coasters,
Grochowski started displaying her collection of tabletop
pieces at craft shows. “People can’t stop touching it,” she says.
Her designs are sold on her website and just two retail locations—Verdigreen
Home in Montclair and Curate in Millburn.
Placemats are $20 each; a set of four coasters is $35.
Grochowski is drawn to an earthy palette of browns, grays
and neutrals, often paired with dandelion yellow, rich burgundy
and mossy green. While she will take custom orders, “there are
certain color combinations that I won’t work in,” she says. “I’ll
help a person down a path, selecting colors that are calming.” ■
Felt pieces surround
Rachael Grochowski
in the light-filled
studio of her architecture
office. About
one-fifth of her work
week is now spent on
felt, she says, “and
a lot of evenings and
weekends.”
Rob Feinstein furniture designer
Asbury Park | 732-749-0843 | soapboxhome.com
Three years ago, Rob Feinstein had a eureka moment. He
wanted to create furniture that could be assembled without
tools. Suddenly it came to him. “I ran downstairs and put it
in my sketchbook,” he says. The next day he took his sketch
to a heating and ventilation shop around the corner from his
Union City architecture office. One day later, he had a metal
prototype. Today, Feinstein’s affordable Soapbox line of furniture
includes coffee tables, end tables and shelves, all with
clean lines and uncomplicated at-home assembly.
Feinstein’s designs, literally boxes, are made up of simple
components—planks of hardwood veneers and metal
connectors that are easily snapped into place, holding the
planks firmly at 90-degree angles. There are long legs and
short legs. And that’s pretty much it. Eureka!
Feinstein designed the line with his own set of rules: “No
screws, no tools, and it can’t be two pieces to do one thing,”
he says. For example, each leg also serves as a corner bracket.
That’s why Feinstein hasn’t added cabinet doors yet. “It’s
not what it is right now,” he explains.
The line comes in three different wood finishes—maple,
cherry and walnut. The brackets are available in black,
white, orange, turquoise and green, plus galvanized metal.
Individual pieces range from $100 to $450.
Feinstein initally cut and hand-finished each piece in the
basement of his architectural firm, Studio One Architects,
but he quickly outgrew the space. The business now operates
in a double-wide garage behind an auto repair shop
in Asbury Park. As business has grown through Internet
sales and word-of-mouth, Feinstein, a full-time architect and
father of two, has begun outsourcing some of the manufacturing.
Still, he stays true to another set of his own rules:
Everything is made in America and it must be environmentally
friendly. “The plywood is glued together with soy-based
glue. The final coat is a hand-polished wax. There are no
VOCs,” he says (a reference to volatile organic compounds,
some of which are dangerous to human health).
Even with outsourcing, Soapbox is Feinstein’s baby. “I am
the shipping department. I am the packing department,” he
says. Each box comes with easy-to-follow instructions, the
most complicated having just eight steps.
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