Clocks, Iron Working, Chairs

Nathan Bower, Clockmaker (website)

Bower Clocks, Traverse City, MI 

Award-winning, Michigan clockmaker, Nathan Bower has been designing, creating and repairing clocks for most of his life, and he’s dedicated to the art, its traditions, and its preservation. Bower is famous for his skeleton clocks, where you can see the intricate, inner workings of the stunning, functional pieces of art.

Read Nathan’s “Meet the Artisan” Blog

Maria Cristalli, Iron forger (website)

Cle Elum, WA

In the male-dominated field of blacksmithing, Maria Cristalli is not only breaking gender stereotypes, but she’s also creating breakthrough functional and decorative art forms with her work at the forge.

A smith for more than 20 years, Cristalli designs and forges architectural ironwork, home furnishings, garden items, decorative pieces such as railings, gates, hardware and a variety of other metal objects, as well as, sculpture. She collaborates with designers, individuals and architects to deliver a piece that expresses the client’s personal aesthetic, and allows her to bring her own concepts and personality to the work. Using traditional, hand-forging techniques she creates stunning modern, functional and decorative items.

Scott Woody, Chair maker (website)

Woody’s Chair Shop, Spruce Pine, NC

Scott Woody, of Spruce Pine, North Carolina is the seventh generation to work in this centuries-old family business that makes chairs in the tradition of his ancestors—without glue, without nails.

Known as a “greenwood” technique, the chair holds itself together by the shrinking and expanding of the wood itself. Chairs are created one at a time from local Appalachian hardwoods, so the chairs are meticulously crafted to be beautiful, functional, and designed to last a lifetime.

You can find Woody’s chairs on display in The Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and featured in publications, including Southern Living and National Geographic.