Things in Wood

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My name is Goerdt Lamberts, founder and creative mind behind Things In Wood and GLL Restoration.

I come from a European background and education, coming to the US in the 80s to pursue my dream of creating wooden art and owning my own antique furniture restoration business. After years in the restoration business, I had used my craftsmanship to create unique gifts for my wife, eventually perfecting the technique of inlaid wooden jewelry. Starting with Hair Barrettes and Earrings, I soon started making Men’s Accessories like Money Clips, Keychains, Cufflinks and Tie Clips for my three stylish sons. It wasn’t until 2010 that I started making these items to sell, but since then I have been able to share my form of artistic creative expression through Things In Wood with people like you.

My newest venture at Things In Wood is Bracelets, as I have started selling pre-made as well as taking custom orders for Segmented Wooden Bracelets; a classic and sophisticated look that leave even the finest wooden jewelry connoisseurs amazed.

Each piece at Things In Wood is unique from the next, as mother nature has a way of crafting one-of-a-kind pieces of art through rare/exotic trees, stones, and even shells such as Abalone and Mother of Pearl. I then craft these wonders of nature into wearable jewelry that nobody else could replicate.

*All of the rare woods and materials used at Things In Wood are sustainably harvested, Fair Trade Certified, or reclaimed wood from antique furniture and damaged trees.*

Hammer Forge Creations

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I began my journey into blacksmithing a mere 5 years ago. I studied as an apprentice in a traditional blacksmith shop in Portland for 2 years before venturing out on my own to focus on my business and artistic expression. I started Hammer Forge Creations in 2015 and have since become an active member of the Fryeburg Fair Blacksmith Shop and a volunteer blacksmith at the Historic Scribner’s Mill in Harrison.

Focusing on small and functional work, much of my style beckons you back into ages past and eludes to a deep connection between the craft of blacksmithing and Earth and Humanity itself. I believe that blacksmithing is not only a skill or ancient craft, it is the perfect metaphor and philosophy for life as well.

SOFTSET ceramics

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I came to Portland, Maine twenty-five years ago as a transfer student to Maine College of Art and graduated in 1999 with a BFA in ceramics. While still a student at MECA, I knew I wanted to integrate art into my community. For seventeen years I taught high school and then also middle school art and ceramics in Maine. While teaching and starting a family, I kept an interrupted studio practice. I studied at Watershed Center for Ceramics and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. In the fall of 2019 what began as a semester sabbatical from teaching to work in my ceramics studio, quickly became my new venture and career. I found in my pivot out of the classroom, a quiet space for reflection and making that had been patiently waiting its turn.

Now, just over a year into branding as SOFTSET ceramics, the work is reaching from California to Ohio to D.C., catching field trips with food stylists and photographers. As I reach new customers, I continue to find the meaning in my work comes from forming connections.

Drawing inspiration from architecture and urban landscape, as well as design traditions that air towards simplicity, I use soft slabs to construct my work in clay. My process includes printing repurposed found objects into flat clay slabs. When attaching the slabs to create upright forms, I encourage gestures that allude to my material process and the content reflected in the work. I think about the arrangement of the marks as anthropomorphic stories, connected to the body and surface of a piece. At times a piece or the process of making a piece inspires another layer of reflection through poetry.

Maine Woodworks

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At Maine Woodworks, we create cottage-style furniture that is bench-crafted and built to order, one piece at a time, right here in Maine. We use regionally sourced, sustainably harvested hardwood, environmentally friendly finishes, and a combination of time-tested and modern day joinery. In true Cottage style, we embrace color and strive to create lasting beauty with every piece of furniture we craft. Our vibrant color palette and elegantly simple designs add beauty and grace to any home.

In purchasing Maine Woodworks furniture, you are investing in our social mission, our people, and in breaking down barriers that limit opportunities for individuals with disabilities to lead productive and fully engaged lives.

“Maine Woodworks is a social enterprise of Creative Works a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that supports individuals with disabilities throughout southern and central Maine. Providing meaningful employment opportunities via Maine Woodworks results in a beautiful product line that is locally made and a community that is more fully integrated, valuing the contribution of all its members.”

Woodsmith’s Manufacturing

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In the fall of 2019, John Templin Jr and his wife Ceara became the new owners of Woodsmith’s.

John, a lineman by trade, grew up in the woods of Smithfield, Maine with his father harvesting logs and driving his father’s skidder. Most of the wood harvested was used for firewood or logs to sell for pulp. Growing up, John would often cut cedar logs into hand-hewn cedar log beds. Some he would sell, some he would keep. It wasn’t until John and Ceara received a sawmill from John’s grandfather as a wedding gift in 2008, that John really started to see the beauty in different species of wood. Cutting a log in different ways exposed different grain patterns and John found it interesting to see just how many boards could be cut from a single log. In 2015, John and Ceara began the project of building their dream home; a hybrid Chalet-style home built with a pine timber frame internal structure and an insulated concrete form outer shell. Ceara, a drafting designer by trade, drafted up the plans for their home and even designed the layout for the kitchen cabinets. John had hopes of building the cabinets himself but with time constraints, was forced to receive quotes from outside manufacturers. Rick Smith from Woodsmith’s Manufacturing drove to Smithfield where John and Ceara were building to measure the room(s) for cabinets. Rick noticed John’s wood working tools, Ceara’s designing skills and the common interest in wood production and handcrafted design. A friendship was formed and the door to a business opportunity was opened.

Today, Woodsmith’s Manufacturing employs 8-10 highly skilled craftsmen with over 100 years of combined experience in the handcrafted furniture and cabinetry industry. The manufacturing facility is still located at the old Woolen Mill site in Oakland and is still building some of the highest quality handcrafted furniture and cabinetry in the state of Maine.

Bigfoot of Maine

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At the end Russian Revolution, the revolutionists opened all the royal museums, galleries, and halls in Moscow and other cities. All the peasants were welcome to these places but there was one big problem – peasants’ boots. These “hob-nailed” boots, if left on the inlaid marble flooring, did serious damage to the floor and if removed and left in a pile, was difficult for the peasants to find their pairs. The horrible smell or unwashed feet was another problem. This is how the trend of OVER BOOT SLIPPERS got started (I saw them during my travels to Europe in the 60’s).
MY CREATION
I wanted to create something that can fix the ‘dirt on the floor” issue. Because I am an architect in the building business, I realized the need for construction boot covers and scuff boot slippers in the real estate business. They were made in four sizes: small, medium, large, and extra-large. Small for children and petite ladies; medium for medium ladies and small men; large for the larger ladies and regular men; and extra-large for the large men.

I got my “eureka moment” when I was skiing at the wonderful Sugarloaf USA up the road from Kingfield, Maine, where I owned, restored and operated a Historic Hilltop Country Inn and French Restaurant for nearly 20 years. What started with designing buildings later led to my passion for just solving problems and which led to making the BOOT SLIPPERS.
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Lynn Ericson Fine Arts

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My artistic career started when I won an art contest at the age of ten. The painting of my beagle, Kimmy, was judged the most popular in the city-wide art festival in Portland, Maine, where I grew up. I then won a New England Regional Art Contest—for painting with Q-tips. I felt like Claude Monet.

I majored in English literature in college and lived in a bunch of places — Boston, Marblehead, MA, Rochester NY, and Clermont Ferrand, France. After getting an MFA from Rochester Institute of Technology, I came back to Portland and opened a graphic design studio. For over 25 years, as Ericson Mitchell Creative, I had an interesting diversity of clients, loved the work and won awards. Then the industry changed drastically and my passion for it waned. I fantasized about having the time to paint and then decided to make it happen.

Although I had dabbled in painting pet portraits, usually dogs, for several years, it wasn’t until 2017 that I decided to paint almost daily and show my work. I’m now happily immersing myself in color and looking forward to where this path takes me. I live in an old farmhouse in Hollis, Maine, with a crowded studio, a lot of books and a menagerie of rescue critters.

ARTIST STATEMENT/WHAT INSPIRES ME

As a graphic designer, I spent over 25 years trying to capture the essence of a product or service and communicate that message with immediacy. I’ve traded designing on the computer for paint, but the goal of my impressionistic acrylic paintings is very much the same. I try to communicate the spirit of a place or subject matter that captures my attention. Since my passion is color, my primary focus is on color relationships and their emotive power. The subject matter anchors the painting and I then explore reducing it to its underlying shapes. patterns, textures and of course, color. I let the painting process determine the final balance between representation and abstraction.

I’m inspired by the natural world and the beauty of places I’ve lived and traveled to. I especially love the Maine landscape with its white pines, marshes, fields of lupine, and iconic little islands. Sometimes I’m just inspired by a compelling color combination in someone’s scarf or a bowl of fruit. I’m constantly taking photos of everything that attracts me visually.

I paint with acrylics and sometimes the addition of oil markers. I start a piece with a wash of thin layers and the progress of the painting involves an ongoing cycle of adding and subtracting, building and simplifying until I feel the balance is right. That feeling of connection is the moment worth waiting for. I’m very influenced by my design education, which stressed strong composition, cropping, vibrant color and the importance of negative space. To keep my pieces from being too busy, I leave sections very quiet to keep from overwhelming the eye and to enhance other elements. And If I had to narrow down my painting influences to a few artists, I would choose the 19th century painter Paul Serusier and contemporary painter, Walt Kuhn.

Chickenscratch

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We began collaborating in 1988 shortly after graduating from prominent the Temple University, Tyler School of Art Jewelry & Metals Program. For 33 years we have created limited production studio multiples under the auspices of CHICKENSCRATCH, basically since we were kids.

Ten years into our venture, we craved a greater technical and creative challenge and began making One-Of-A-Kind pieces under “L & S Cylinder”, in addition to our studio multiples. This jewelry and objects are more substantial and more serious, both in concept and execution and have been exhibited internationally.

We are inspired by a blend of observations; Of nature, fables and myths, vintage cartoons, Craft history and Fine Art. It is an amalgam of two peoples different points of view, histories and experiences, both individual and shared.

Our Studio in Fort Andross, in Brunswick, is called “the Wedge”, due to it’s unusual shape. There, all of our work is hand crafted by the two of us. The Wedge also functions as a teaching space where beginner classes and advanced workshops take place.

Mt Waldo Plastics

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Mike and Stacy started Mount Waldo Plastics with a simple idea: Build a snow shovel that is tough enough for a hard Maine winter. They put hundreds of hours of research into finding the best design for a snow shovel, and they came up with the “Snofighter.”

In addition to its sleek, attractive design, the Snofighter is the best shovel on the market for a number of reasons. Designed by Mainers, it is lightweight, so it reduces the strain put on the users’ back and arms when shoveling. It has a large handle that makes it easy to grip, and the scoop portion of the shovel is made of hard, durable plastic that doesn’t crack, even when used on wet, heavy snow. The Snofighter recently went on the market, and there has already been a big demand for the Maine-made product. 17 businesses now offer the Snofighter and more join the list nearly every day.

If your local hardware store doesn’t offer the Snofighter, ask them to! Be ready for the snow this year with the Snofighter, the only shovel tough enough for a hard Maine winter.

Pocomoonshine Crafts

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We are a husband and wife team, David and Jean Herrick, and we weave each rug and towel in our home. It all started with the fond memories David has of his mother using a Nadeau table loom to weave useful items for the family.

In 2014 we started weaving at our home on the beautiful shores of Pocomoonshine Lake in Washington County, Maine. Thus, the name “Pocomoonshine Crafts” came to life. Many a winter day is spent at our looms weaving beautiful and useful articles for you

Our rag rugs and towel are known both for their beauty and usefulness, and for the love that goes into each rag rug and towel. They add enjoyment to the home for years to come.