Twig Tables
Double Wave Table and detail of table by Clifton
Monteith, willow and aspen (36"x50"x18"), 2002
Clifton Monteith
June 16 – 20
Participants use greenwood willow twigs to make tables that are delightful in form and function—exploring the creative possibilities of the simplest of materials and tools. Clifton addresses how to find and collect materials from the wild, how to begin thinking about building a table surface with twigs, and how to cut and assemble components using a pruning saw, hammer, nails, snips, drill, and rasp. Learning takes place while doing.
Clifton writes: “Once you have worked with these wonderful natural materials and investigated the possibilities of wood twigs in their most native form, you will never be the same! You will never drive by a patch of saplings in a roadside ditch without questioning just what delight might spring from their suggestion!”
Clifton Monteith creates rustic furniture and architectural design in Lake Ann, Michigan, where he has maintained a workshop since 1985. Originally a painter, he has taught rustic furniture making from Parnham College in England to Kyoto City University College of Art in Japan. Clifton has been honored with an Individual Artist’s Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and several Fellowships for studies in Japan. His furniture is in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Arts & Design in New York, and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass.