Made in Vermont

Vermont craftsmen recently exhibited their design entries in the Vermont Woodworking Design Competition, held Sept. 29-30 at the ninth annual Vermont Fine Furniture & Woodworking Festival at the Union Arena in Woodstock, Vt.

The contest gives the public an opportunity to see the broad scope of work designed and created by state artisans. This year’s judges were Robert Fletcher, co-founder of the Vermont Woodworking School; Dave Sellers, owner of Sellers & Co. in Warren, Vt.; and James Murray, executive director of design and product development at Simon Pearce Glass.

Pieces were judged based on the quality of the craftsmanship and the innovativeness of the design. The competition was open only to those pieces that are designed and made in Vermont.

“I thought the work was excellent. The quality of craftsmanship in Vermont has gone way up in the last 20 years. Ten to 20 years ago, there were a lot of people who were just beginning woodworking and their craftsmanship was weak. But now there are a substantial number of people with a very high skill level,” says Sellers.

The contest was judged in the following categories: custom furniture, production furniture, custom woodenware, production woodenware and carvings. There was also a student/apprentice category for those 18 and over and enrolled in woodworking school.

The first-place winners were:

Custom furniture: David Hurwitz Originals in Randolph

Production furniture: ClearLake Furniture of Ludlow

Custom furniture: David Hurwitz Originals in Randolph

Custom woodenware: Green Mountain Woodturning in Ryegate

Production woodenware: Maple Landmark Woodcraft in Middlebury

Carvings: My Minds Design in Grafton

Student/apprentice: Alicia Dietz, Vermont Woodworking School

For a full list of winners, visit www.vermontwooddesigns.org.

This article originally appeared in the December 2012 issue.