Cartouche Recipients
2023: Dan Faia
Daniel Faia graduated from the Cabinet and Furniture Making program at the North Bennet Street School in Boston, Massachusetts in 1994 where he currently serves as the department head. He has been on the faculty since shortly after graduation, first as an assistant to Will Neptune in the “short course” program. He became a full-time instructor in 2006 and was promoted to department head in 2010. He has also taught at the Furniture Institute of Massachusetts, The Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking and the Windsor Institute. He recently opened his own facility to teach small group workshops in Rollinsford, New Hampshire.He has produced the highest quality work for decadesincluding high-style period work, wood carving and Windsor chairs. His work covers a wide range of styles and woodworking traditions.
Since his graduation from NBSS he has worked building furniture, period reproductions and traditional woodcarving. He has also participated in demonstrations, exhibits, and presentations for organizations such as Colonial Williamsburg, Concord Museum, Fruitlands Museum, Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers, Museum of Fine Arts- Boston, Old State House- Boston, Old Sturbridge Village, The Society of American Period Furniture Makers, The Furniture Society, and The Old Manse.
In addition to teaching in person, demonstrating the craft to groups and actively building commissions Dan has written extensively for Fine Woodworking magazine beginning in 2003. He is an active member of the Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers and SAPFM. We congratulate him on his selection as the 2023 Cartouche recipient and his story and past work will be featured in the 2023 edition of American Period Furniture. More information about Daniel Faia, his work and the workshops he conducts can be found online at: https://danielfaia.com/
2022: Chuck Bender
Charles (Chuck) Bender is the recipient of the 2022 Cartouche Award. He is one of the most highly regarded furniture makers in the country and the founder of the Acanthus Workshop. He began woodworking at the age of 12 in his parents’ basement, making pieces of furniture for friends and family. Chuck studied under Werner Duerr at the Central Chester County Vocational Technical School (now called the Center for the Arts and Technology) in Pennsylvania. Werner taught his high school program exactly like his apprenticeship in Germany. The students were instructed to blend hand tool use with power tools.
After graduation from high school, Chuck began working for other cabinet makers to hone his skills. He spent nearly ten years working with Irion Company Furnituremakers, working his way up to head of case and chair production. He opened his own business in 1991 and has since built a reputation for making high quality 18th Century furniture reproductions. His work can be seen in museums, private collections, and at juried craft shows. Chuck has received numerous woodworking awards throughout his career and has been featured in local and national magazines and newspapers.
In 2007, Chuck added the title “woodworking mentor” to his list of accomplishments by starting the Acanthus Workshop (a school for avocational woodworkers). Also, in 2007, he began sharing his knowledge publicly by writing articles for Popular Woodworking Magazine and teaching skill-driven classes at woodworking shows across the country. And with a growing list of more than a dozen DVDs published, Chuck continues to educate budding (and accomplished) woodworkers worldwide.
In 2013, Chuck joined the staff of Popular Woodworking Magazine as Senior Editor but left nearly two years later to start an online magazine. Realizing his true passion resides in the workshop, either building furniture or teaching others, he exited the online venture and re-established himself as a teacher and furniture maker in 2017. He currently operates his own school, the Acanthus Workshop https://acanthus.com.
The award was presented at the SAPFM Mid-Year conference June 24-27, 2022 in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
2021: David Lamb
David Lamb’s career started in Canterbury, NH almost 50 years ago when his family moved to Canterbury Shaker Village to run the Shaker museum there. Living within the historical setting and having a personal friendship with the six remaining Shakers gave him a unique insight into that segment of American folklife and the Shaker artistic and architectural output. Within a year of moving to Canterbury David was invited to be an apprentice with next door neighbor, Alejandro de la Cruz, an accomplished and traditionally trained cabinetmaker from Madrid.
The classic training David received over the three year period was thorough and focused on benchwork and all hand techniques and long discussions on design, proportion, aesthetics and the business of being a craftsman. Heavy emphasis on traditional American and European technique and form predominated the shop’s output.
Contemporary art school was next at Boston University’s Program in Artistry with Jere Osgood and Alphonse Mattia as teachers for his degree in Applied Arts. Thinking in non-traditional ways of creating form and aesthetic ideas was instrumental here.
It is these three aspects that drives David’s design and work; classical form and integrity, Shaker directness and function and contemporary rethinking of graphic aesthetic and methods to accomplish them. In addition to these exposures, nature has played a huge part in what motivates David’s design, both in form and detail by constantly drawing flowers and plants, carving them and incorporating these and other natural aspects in his work.
During his career he has been a 40 year juried member of the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen and has served as juror for over a decade. He is a founding member of the Guild of NH Woodworkers and regular contributor to their highly acclaimed Journal and is a founding member of The New Hampshire Furniture Masters Association where he has served as chairman for three terms. He was appointed New Hampshire Artist Laureate by Gov. John Lynch for two terms from 2010-2014. David also was a participant presenting traditional furniture making at The Smithsonian Folklife Festival representing NH in 1999 in Washington, DC.
Throughout his career as a full time furniture maker he has had innumerable furniture making opportunities building the highest level of historical work and just as important, pieces that rethink what tradition could mean. Collaborations with other artists and craftsmen play a big part in David’s work but also the insightful feedback and exceptional contributions from his wife, Janet.
2020: Tony Kubalak
Tony came to period furniture making as an avocation a little later in life. Initially he was captivated and intrigued by the shells on a Newport Six Shell Secretary he had seen in a magazine. The intrigue turned into a quest to understand and learn how to create them. Over the next fifteen years he learned basic woodworking skills, including hand cut dovetails, from books, videos and an occasional weekend class. However, he resigned himself to only being able to build pieces with a hint of 18th Century design.
This changed in 1999 when he took his first class with Gene Landon at Olde Mill Cabinet Shoppe in York, PA. Over the next eleven years he traveled the 2200 mile round trip from Minneapolis to York multiple times a year, making seven trips in one year. His progress started out a little slow, but with persistence, his skills steadily improved. His first project, a Chippendale Arm Chair, took four years to complete, but after that the pieces became more manageable as his skills and confidence improved. At the same time his interest turned into a passion which continues to this day.
Tony has won over ten awards for his work at the Northern Woods Show, an annual exhibition sponsored by the Minnesota Woodworkers' Guild. For nine consecutive years he was listed in Early American Life's Directory of Traditional American Crafts. His work has been featured several times in Fine Woodworking Magazine, Woodshop News and Woodwork Magazine. He authored a Master Class Article in Fine Woodworking that subsequently led to an opportunity to write his first book, Carving 18th Century Furniture Elements. That experience prompted him to write a second book, Carving 18th Century Motifs. A third book on building a highly carved Chippendale Dressing Table is in progress. In addition to writing books, he recently has started to offer classes. He wants to specialize in helping others build high style pieces because of his passion for them and because he sees a void in this area.
Tony’s main interest is in high style Philadelphia Queen Anne and Chippendale pieces. He is drawn to the carvings because of their beauty and challenge. He has traveled several times to museums to measure and photograph pieces of interest. He is currently in the middle of building the Willing Card Table and has documentation for, and plans to build several of the Cadwalader pieces.
You can see more of his work at www.TonyKubalak.com.
2019: Robert G. “Bob” Stevenson, Jr.
Bob was an inaugural member of SAPFM in 1999, helped establish the criteria for the Cartouche Award, and for many years was chairman of what is now called the Cartouche Award Selection Committee. With SAPFM member Brad Ormsby he founded the Southern California chapter and has contributed for many years to its success and growth. Following a highly successful 30-year health and space science career in the Navy, during which time he vigorously pursued art and woodworking hobbies, he pursued a second full-time career as a fine woodworking cabinet maker, including instruction for others.
For nearly two decades Bob was the Coordinator of the Design in Wood Show in Del Mar California, one of the largest international juried woodworking shows in the nation with over 350 yearly entries and nearly 1 million visitors each year. Throughout these years he became active in the impressive San Diego Fine Woodworking Association, all the while continuing his support for SAPFM and pursuing additional teaching and mentoring opportunities with youth in the community and with his woodworking peers.
Bob’s furniture efforts eventually focused on the Federal Period, and he has entertained and educated SAPFM members with his impressive pieces shown in our publications and in our midyear meeting furniture displays.
Bob has the following pieces in the SAPFM Gallery: