In an increasingly mass-produced, cookie-cutter world, decorators are putting out the welcome mat for lovingly handcrafted home furnishings. meet six creative craftspeople who are answering the call in northern arizona. BY ERIKA AYN FINCH; PHOTOGRAPHS BY DEBBIE WEINKAUFF Artisan-made furniture feels right at home in northern Arizona. As people increasingly look at furniture not solely as functional, but as an expression of their personality, talented artisans creating unique, one-of-kind pieces are enjoying new appreciation. “Artisans have been around since ancient Egypt,” notes Lynne Montedonico, Sedona Monthly’s style consultant. “But I think they have taken on a whole new focus in home décor in recent years. We’re quite fortunate to have such a wide range of artisans working in Arizona now.” Buying artisan-made furniture also is a natural fit with the rising awareness of eco-sensitive living. Buying from local artisans is environmentally friendly (reduced emissions to transport the items) and contributes to the greening of your home since many artisans insist on sustainable and natural materials. “I think people, in general, are more interested in handcrafted items right now,” says Lynne, “especially at a time when it seems like everything is mass-produced.” On the following pages, you’ll meet six Arizona artisans whose talents are beautifying local living: Alex Beres finds inspiration in old-world Europe for his custom ironwork; Jody Florman paints murals and borders in every pattern imaginable; Linda Garrison gives you a brand-new view with her architectural leaded glass windows; Tim McClellan reclaims wood from dilapidated buildings for heirloom-quality furniture; Craig Nimtz crafts furniture from local manzanita and juniper; and Ken Skiby has made a family business out of distressed-wood furniture. And readers outside Arizona, take heart: Most of these artisans will travel for clients or ship out of state. Now, everyone can get in on Arizona artisans’ arrival. Alex Beres: Ironwork Alex began crafting furniture and light fixtures from iron in the 1960s and eventually opened Ferro Style in California in 1990 (“ferro” means “iron” in Italian). In 1995, Alex and his wife moved to Arizona, settling in Phoenix. Ever since he has crafted fences, gates, chandeliers, wall sconces, benches, tables, and – his specialty – hand rails for multi-million dollar homes in Paradise Valley, Desert Mountain, and Sedona. He spent 18 months working on a $20 million remodel project near the Arizona Biltmore, but feels “it wasn’t for me. I like smaller projects.” Alex laughs as he says he works “eight days a week” designing his unique iron pieces in consultation with interior designers, homebuilders, and other clients. He has formulated his own finish solutions to turn iron a dark brown or dark rust as desired. In keeping with his old-world style, Alex has no Website and checks his e-mail only about once a month; he still prefers to draw his designs by hand. “Everything now is computerized and I don’t like it,” he asserts. “People took their time [in previous eras] – everything is so uniform now.” Jody Florman: Decorative Painting Jody’s repertoire today includes faux painting, stenciling, hand-painting, murals, and trompe l’oeil. For more than 20 years she’s been working on high-end homes all over the world, with a focus on the Southwest – she relocated to Camp Verde from Southern California less than three years ago. She works alone and has tackled everything from a powder room to an entire 15,000-sq.-ft. house. She says she’s seeing less call for faux painting, in which she uses brushes and rags to blend oil paints in four to seven different shades, and stenciling these days, but more for murals and hand-painting. “Hand-painting has a fluidity people like,” she says. “Typically I will hand-paint a border around a room or work on a ceiling. Tapestry designs are very popular right now.”
Clients will use murals on any expansive wall while Jody does a lot of hand-painting in powder rooms and kitchens. As you can imagine, Jody has embellished almost every room in her own home and she eschews white or neutral-colored walls. “Color scares people but they need to relax and allow it into their lives,” she says. “All rooms in my house are done in color – it uplifts the spirit and brings a different energy into the home. It makes you feel grounded, focused and alive.” Jody Florman Linda Garrison: Architectural Leaded Glass  Linda Garrison took her first copper foil glass class in 1980 when she was 18 and soon after began working for a glass company in Venice, Calif., with clients including Michael Jackson’s parents and Western author Louis L’Amour. For the next ten years, Linda learned the glass industry from the inside out; she worked for a beveling company, installed mirrors and windows, and cut heavy and patterned glass while creating stained glass on the side. In 1992 she hurt her back, prompting her to take night classes in graphic design – and the next step in her career.
“I met up with a friend in Laguna Beach and started working with him on architectural leaded glass,” she says. “I was learning how to design on the computer. That’s when things took off.” In the early 1990s, Linda packed up and moved to Cornville after visiting a friend who lived in the area. “She took me to Sedona,” Linda remembers, “and I could see myself doing stained glass here.” But it wasn’t smooth sailing at first. She took a job as a graphic artist and spent her free time pounding the pavement with her portfolio. After taking small jobs for five years she spent another two years traveling back and forth between Cornville and Laguna – two weeks in the Verde Valley, two weeks at the coast – before she finally got her big break in Arizona with a local architect. “The rest,” she says, “is history.” Linda, a breast cancer survivor, has worked solely in northern Arizona for seven years, primarily creating architectural leaded glass, using clear glass with little bursts of color. “It’s not like in churches,” she says. “It doesn’t overwhelm.” “It took me three years to get used to this place – I grew up at the beach and I miss it,” she says. “But I was always working for someone else and now I’m living my dream – I work for myself.” Linda Garrison – Garrison Glass Studio Ken Skiby: Furniture Designer and Builder Ken and two other builders he employs create all types of furniture, from kitchen cabinets to beds to dining room tables. Most pieces have a distressed look but Ken says they’ve also crafted contemporary pieces and unique items such as carved wood panels, columns, beams, and doors. Many of the pieces wind up in Spanish-style homes, though Ken has seen his work in French Colonial, Southwest, and English houses. “We don’t really label our furniture,” says the artisan, who was named one of the Masters of the Southwest 2007 by Phoenix Home & Garden. “We give our clients the style they are looking for.” Ken and KJ prefer to work with alder wood, but they’ll use any wood the client requests. Ken both stains and paints pieces; all the furniture is made using mortise and tenon construction, to ensure the strongest wood joints possible. “You could drop it and the joint won’t break,” says Ken. “This is heirloom-style furniture we’re making.” Not only does Ken work with his son, but his wife handles the bookkeeping. “I always dreamed of having a business the family could be part of and proud of. We like to keep it low key and I make sure I’m part of every piece that comes out of the shop. We aren’t trying to make a fortune but we’re happy to be making a living out of it.” Ken Skiby – K&M Skiby & Sons Custom Furniture Builders Craig Nimtz: Furniture Maker Walk into Craig Nimtz’s West Sedona workshop and showroom and you’re immediately greeted by the sharp yet comforting scent of cut wood. Eight years ago Craig opened The Crooked Chair, designing and crafting furniture using alligator juniper, manzanita, and saguaro cactus. He’s been in his West Sedona location for four years, working closely with interior designers and catering both to new home buyers and homeowners looking to redecorate here in Sedona (though he has shipped furniture to other states).
Soft-spoken Craig is a man of few words – a hand-crafted chair made by a friend in Scottsdale inspired the name of his business and still sits near his showroom. He works seven days a week and says he gets attached to the pieces he creates. Craig says only he knows when a piece is truly finished. “It’s not done until it clicks,” he says. “The inspiration is always there, especially when I’m moving wood around. If I trip over it enough, I’ll make something out of it.” Once created, each of Craig’s pieces is sandblasted and oiled with Craig plans to add more copper inlay to his new pieces, many of which can be purchased directly from his showroom. Craig’s client’s homes range from Southwestern to contemporary – he says it’s all about finding the right piece. “Each one has to be special,” he insists. “None of the wood here goes into the trash. Nothing goes to waste.” Craig Nimtz and The Crooked Chair Tim McClellan: Furniture Designer, Engineer, and Builder
In between the bed and the desk, Tim, who was born in Florida and grew up in Virginia, relocated to Jerome. He originally came to Arizona to help his sister set up a sandwich shop and fell in love with the Verde Valley. In 1994, he moved his company, called Whittleman Furniture at the time, to the old 8,000-sq.-ft. Mingus Union H.S. gym in Jerome, and rechristened it Western Heritage Furniture in 1996. For the first five years, he worked with high-end clients in Scottsdale and Sedona. It was during this time he designed the Ghostwood Collection, which is Western Heritage’s most popular collection. “In Seattle,” he recalls, “I would look at the piles of wood [lumber companies] would burn each year and I’d see piles of gold. When I came here I saw all the buildings crumbling and falling to the ground and I had the same reaction – I saw value.” The Ghostwood Collection consists of tables, desks, chairs, benches, and mirrors made from wood of old homes, barns, and lofts. Tim teamed with Tim McCune in 2000 to expand Western Heritage, which now includes the Heritage, Signature, and Tim McClellan collections. Each piece comes with background about the building from which it was made – the wood, usually Douglas fir and pine, mostly comes from the midwest. Though anyone can visit Western Heritage’s showroom and workshop on Hwy 89A (the company now has 30 employees – Tim still does all the design and engineering but he has a staff of builders), Tim doesn’t sell directly to the public; his pieces are carried in 140 stores in the U.S. and Canada and through interior designers. While Tim says he hates the business aspect of his career, he’s proud to be “reclaiming old Americana.” “To design and create with my hands is what I want to do most in this world,” he says. “I just want to create.” • Tim McClellan and Western Heritage Furniture |
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Alex Beres fled the communist regime in his hometown of Budapest when he was in his 20s, but his love for the city’s ironwork never left. Just before we spoke, he had returned to his central Phoenix workshop after three weeks in Europe – which he visits annually – photographing gates and fnces from the 1800s for inspiration. “It’s in my blood,” he says. “There was so much talent hundreds of years ago. I’m inspired by the old world – Brussels, Paris, Budapest, and Milan.”
Jody prides herself on her versatility: Her two most recent murals were an underwater scene with mermaids and dolphins, and a nearly full-size ’60s peace bus. Even after more than two decades working at her art, Jody still finds she has tremedous enthusiasm for the house she’s working on at any given time. “I respond viscerally to people’s homes,” she explains. “I want your house to speak to you. It should be welcoming to everyone, but when you come home your house should be so much like you that every cell in your body relaxes.”
As a boy, Ken Skiby would watch his grandfather build intricate, hand-carved furniture he’d present to friends and family as gifts. Using the skills his grandfather taught him, Ken built furniture in his spare time while working in the construction industry until 12 years ago, when he began managing a furniture-building operation – within two years he bought the business and K&M Skiby & Sons Custom Furniture Builders was born. Now, Ken and his eldest son, KJ, 21, build one-of-a-kind pieces in their shop in Prescott Valley, working primarily with interior designers in northern Arizona.
Craig creates a wide range of furniture, from bathroom vanities and mirrors to fireplace mantels, skylights, and beds. Around his workshop sits wood ranging from small branches destined to become candelabras to trunks and limbs twice the size of a person and set aside for executive desks. He has a five-acre lumberyard in Camp Verde where he stores more material – all the wood is collected locally (with permits, of course) and is completely dead before being removed from the forest. While most furniture makers at least begin with common wood such as oak and pine, Craig, who previously built homes in California, says he began crafting with ponderosa pine before moving into the exotics he uses now.
Flash-forward to 2003 when Tim created a desk for a design conference in Cody, Wyo. He used cherry wood, buckboard, buffalo head nickels, copper, leather, and maple to create the Presidential Desk – it sold, sight unseen, for $25,000.
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