A pdf file of the original catalog can be viewed here We will be adding the new work to this catalog soon and will have CD's available at both upcoming venues.

We will have the entire body of work, including the furniture, as well as several new pieces recently created by artists and studio furniture makers who have recently joined us, as well as new pieces by artists whose initial pieces have previously sold. 

National Treasures will be a featured exhibit this year at the American Association of Woodturners annual symposium in St. Paul, Minnesota. June 24th- 26th, 2011

All work will be for sale at both of the upcoming venues, so come see the body of work early if you would like to own a piece of museum quality wood art, or studio furniture, with a great historical connection to early America! We will be set up in the instant gallery area, close to the EOG auction exhibit.

The second venue is The Ohio Craft Museum in Columbus Ohio. National Treasures: History in the Making will be on view starting July 10th, and will end August 21st. National Treasures will run concurrently with another prominent exhibition Boxes and Their Makers

Again, all works are for sale during the exhibition. Inquiries for purchase will be directed to William Jewell of HWA.

William Jewell will be giving a presentation about the exhibit, as well as a Q&A session on Sunday afternoon August 21st. Oscar Fitzgerald will be speaking about the Boxes and Their Makers exhibition as well.

 New participating artists who have completed their pieces include: Norm Sartorius, J. Paul Fennell, Po Shun Leong, David Nittmann, Emmet Kane, Duncan Gowdy, Michael Puryer Michael Bauermiester and Philip Weber, 

 Here are a few of the recently completed pieces you can expect to see at the upcoming venues. 

As the artists complete their new pieces. and submit their photos, I'll post them here as well.

Please click on the thumbnails for a larger view.

                                     Duncan Gowdy

                                      Binh Pho

                                     Joey Richardson

 J. Paul Fennell

 Michael Puryear

                                     Micheal Bauermiester

                                      David Ellsworth

                                      Po Shun Leong

                                      Po Shun Leong

                                     Po Shun Leong

                                      Po Shun Leong

Norm Sartorius

Norm Sartorius

                                     Norm Sartorius

                                     Norm Sartorius

                                      Norm Sartorius

                                      Norm Sartorius

                                     Emmet Kane

                                     Emmet Kane

                                     Janel Jacobson

We look forward to seeing everyone at the symposium soon. Meanwhile, please feel free to contact me if I can answer any questions about the exhibit or the new pieces.

Take care,

William Jewell

National Treasures will be on view again for one day only on Sunday, September 26th at a special collectors brunch in Bethesda, Maryland, that has been arranged by the Collectors of Wood Art.

This brunch is the last weekend event planned by CWA in conjunction with the Fleur and Charles Bressler's "A Revolution in Wood"  opening at the Renwick September 24th,2010.

Please visit CWA's website to glean more information about their plans for the entire week  surrounding the Bressler opening at the Renwick Gallery .

If anyone would like to come by the Hilton to view the body of work, please contact me to arrange your visit, as this is an invitation only event. 540 273 1349

All pieces are for sale and we would welcome visitors for a private viewing. 

Although I'm very pleased with the way things went, I wish that I had time to cover more details in each of the three segments. Four minutes goes by quickly when you're nervous!

Here's the link if anyone wants to see the three segments.

We've signed up several more wonderful artists for the exhibit recently, including-

Judy Kensley Mckie, Vladimir Kagan, Alfred Sharp, Michael Puryear, David Lamb, Joe Tracy, Duncan Gowdy, Giles Gilson, Po Shun Leong, David Nittman, J. Paul Fennel, Philip Weber, Michael Bauermeister, Graeme Priddle and Norm Sartorius. We're still in the process of adding more great artists and furniture makers to the roster and will keep you posted.

One of the many highlights was to meet Vladimir Kagan and his wife Erica. We had a short but very nice conversation at the FS conference and have since spoken about his participation in the National Treasures exhibit. He's thinking of doing a small to medium sized sculpture. I was also pleased to see that Vladi was kind enough, and obviously impressed enough, to take the time to write about National Treasures on his blog.

Both venues presented a bit of a challenge while setting up, but I feel that the end result was worth the efforts. There were a lot of great compliments from many of the attendees, collectors and fellow woodworkers.

Better that the compliments though, I'm pleased to announce that two pieces  from the exhibit sold at the AAW symposium. The first was Binh Pho's  "The Architect of the American Dream", and Jacques Vesery's "A Fascination With Cherry Trees" Both pieces went to two major wood art collectors.

Jacques and Binh already have fresh wood and are working on new pieces to replace the sold work.

I also had the opportunity to visit with a good friend and sculptor Than Smith, who lives just south of Boston.  I haven't seen Than for 5 yrs. and finally got to meet his new wife for the first time. We had a nice BBQ, caught up a bit and visited his hometown Duxbury.

Because I had to do the" being in two places at the same time" thing, I didn't have the time I would have liked to hang out with all my new found friends, but it's always great to see everyone and hopefully, the next time we're all together, we can have some fun.

National Treasures will be on view again for one day only on Sunday, September 26th at a special collectors brunch in Bethesda, Maryland, that has been arranged by the Collectors of Wood Art.

This brunch is the last weekend event planned by CWA in conjunction with the Fleur and Charles Bressler's "A Revolution in Wood"  opening at the Renwick September 24th,2010.

Please visit CWA's website to glean more information about their plans for the entire week  surrounding the Bressler opening at the Renwick Gallery .    

As a reminder, all of the artwork is for sale, with the exception of Jere Osgood's Cherry Hall Table (Sold). If you have an interest in purchasing one of these museum quality pieces, please contact me via email or phone.

HWA is currently seeking national and international museum venues who would be interested in exhibiting National Treasures: History in the Making for future dates. If your organization is interested, please contact William Jewell to discuss the availability and fees.

We will continue to add  top quality artists as we go forward with this project. Our goal is to have 50 artists involved by the time we're done, so stay tuned!

Jacques and I are also pleased to announce the addition of a few more exciting artist to the exhibit. 

We welcome Michael Puryear, Norm Sartorius, Philip Weber, and David Nittman to our list of incredibly talented and respected artists.

 More artists and information will be added soon.

All the Best,

William 

Working on the commissions from the show, lining up the next venue for the exhibit, collecting new historic wood, and following up with our clients requests. 

Last week HWA was hired by James Monroe's Ash Lawn- Highland to remove deadwood and prune back a few live branches on the massive Monroe-era White Oak tree, and the ancient Hemlock (possibly Monroe-era as well) that grows in front of the mansion. We spent last Monday and Tuesday in Charlottesville performing the work.  My certified arborist, Doug Tochtrop, who had to climb the trees and perform all work from ropes due to the massive height and crown spread was in heaven!                    

We all enjoyed working on these historic trees at Ash Lawn, but Doug especially. He loves what he does for sure, but having the honor to work on these huge old historic trees is a real treat. I practically had to bribe him to come down.

We also cleaned up an old Ash tree that has some severe lightening damage and is probably on its way out, unfortunately.

We will be utilizing the live wood prunings from these trees to produce our usual array of products, such as fine writing instruments, lathe-turned art, boxes, and so forth.

Today, I'm heading to Mount Vernon to retrieve several large branches that have come off of three of the original trees that date to 1770 or earlier. From what I've been told by Mt. Vernon, it's not clear if the trees were planted by Washington, or if they were already growing on the property when he arrived. I'll know for sure soon. I'll keep you posted. I'll also be retrieving several pieces of a Cedar of Lebanon tree that was planted in 1899 next to Washington's tomb. The cedar was planted to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of his death. The ceremony and planting of the tree has something to do with Washington's status as a Mason. I'll know more soon and pass it along.Doug Tochtrop Pruning the Monroe era White Oak

We are in the process of updating the website's product pages and should have them live soon, so please check back frequently. Or, if you have a need for a specific item, please call or write with your requests.

William Jewell at National Treasures Exhibit

The interest from collectors, designers, patrons and press was, and still is, extraordinary.  The exhibit was featured in an AP article that hit the wire on April 14th, the title of the story is "Craftsmen give wood a second life", and can be seen here http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=10373962

 We've provided materials and photography to other publications recently and expect more upcoming press from several quality publications in the next few months. Meanwhile, read about how this project came together, and see the list of participating artists.   Copies of the catalog that was produced for the exhibit may be purchased for $10 and will be mailed out upon request.  Or, if you would like to see the catalog in a PDF format, please send me an email request.

All works are for sale, prices upon request. If you see something of interest, please contact William Jewell

We are pleased to announce that National Treasures will be on view again soon! The third week in June, we will be exhibiting the furniture pieces at the Furniture Society's annual conference, which is on the campus of MIT in Boston this year, and the same week,(June 18-20), the sculptural and lathe turned art will be on display at the American Association of Woodturners annual symposium at the Hartford Connecticut convention center.