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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. 44 July 2014 NJMONTHLY.COM NEW JERSEY MONTHLY July 2014 45
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. 46 July 2014 NJMONTHLY.COM NEW JERSEY MONTHLY July 2014 47
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