 Pacific Desk Chair with former nylon base Currently in the design prototype fabrication stage is a finished metal base by Brian Gilman. Its like planting unknown flower seeds. I don't know what he will come up with but I know it'll be good. Stay tuned. | The old nylon bases have evolved. We now offer two new choices, soon to be three.  Plain Steel Base  Wood Clad Base |
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 Tis fascinating to see what is our customers focus and tastes as the years roll by. We are never making an evenly distributed palette of furniture, instead our sales action comes in clumps of furniture types and clumps of wood types. Occasionally I get home (or in this case office) shots, which is a treat for us, to see the furniture actually in use. This bench is midway up Long island in a Naturopaths' waiting room. Nice to know it gets a revolving team of kids climbing on it and getting read to by their parents while they sit on it. This one is 66" long.
All this media discussion about conflict and how to deal with it, but I'm not so sure conflict needs to happen or even is desirable. Is conflict a secondary experience, the result of a persons creepy feelings which arise around different ideas and opinions which need to be reconciled so we can function and excel as a group? Whatever that group is- school, committees, work, meetings and so on. Can we move beyond the feelings of conflict and simply see our differences as merely requiring work? Here is a LinkedIn post I was compelled to write after seeing the discussions about "conflict" banking, and how to relax during conflict. Assumptions that conflict is inevitable.
"Conflict or Adjusting our assumptions and goals? After having just spent some time in a conflict avoidant culture and observing how differing ideas are reconciled while avoiding a feeling of conflict, I think most of us are underskilled at dealing with differences. In other words fears and yucky feelings frequently arise when conflicting ideas need to be addressed. I think as leaders we can do a lot to create a world where differences are an opportunity to reach a higher level of group excellence. Posturing for dominance or puffery becomes crass and foreign to the group, while creative thinking becomes infectious and exciting." I don't think conflict is inevitable at all. Differences in ideas and feelings are inevitable. But those differences do not have to be a threat to our sense of self. After all, isn't the "self" more of an allegation than a fact? Enough is enough, its time to go skiing and traveling. I'm not getting any younger and the long many days have cornered me into taking a break. My commitment to the business is the same as it has been for the past forty years, but as a well known person said "the mountains are calling". Thus its hut to hut skiing in Norway for a few weeks on a few different trips. That means no cell or data service, except when I return to marginally populated area between trips, so leave your Emails. Texts will be a mess due to the quantities and organization. Please, just emails! Upon return: Heckofatrip. It is heartwarming to rediscover that even after 60 the corporeal body still kicks in to meet the world with enough stimulus. In other words as the days progressed I did see increasing strength, fitness and comfort with the cold. It is amazing to find content comfort in skiing in brutal weather conditions. Its probably good they denote the wind speed in meters per second. 26 M/S wasn't intimidating when I didn't know what it was. I found it interesting to be surrounded by our group of twelve and their chattiness but not knowing what was being said save for a few words. Somehow that wasn't frustrating. Sop a few of the hundreds of pictures are below.  On the way to Fellsbu hut in the Rondane mountains.
 Jotunheim 2000
 I just received another brief message through Facebook. All it said was "Are you hiring?" So as I sent off my standard reply, I thought why not post it here also. I'm beginning to think people believe they are doing the best thing by sending out these three word inquiries. That it is nice and efficient of everyone's time. That with enough three word inquiries something will come back. Are we hiring? I'm always on the lookout for good people. If you are looking to work here take this tip (and these apply to any employer). 1.In person visits are crucial. If we're not worth the time of a visit or at least a phone call we must not mean much to you, and working here means learning a long set of skills. If we are going to devote ourselves to your development, then you mean a lot to us. And we should mean a lot to you. We hire people, and we want to see our relationship and your skills grow. We don't hire warm bodies to be a cog in the machine. Try out a person to person approach to working here!
   Time to get this policy out in print. Once you have made a purchase I hold the pricing on any further of our items to that purchase date for ten years. Bought a Cherry Wood Seat Brendan Rocker in 2009 for $2100? You can buy another one now in 2018 for the same price. I do have to cap the savings at 16% from the original price to today's price to account for massive wood cost increases or increased design complexity (we continually improve everything we make).
Sure it seems crazy to my former marketing/ business consultant, however now that I'm approaching the sunset years of my career with no visible successor I have the freedom to treat people just as I want to be treated.  Time to clean up the showroom and reclaim some badly needed space. We have moved on to a new nesting table design, as sweet as this one is. The old design had over 35 distinct parts for a set, just too many when we usually made one order at a time. One set sold immediately and we still have this Cherry setfor $800 (was $1200).. The inlaid leather is actually dark brown on the available set. Here is a link to the listing in out catalog.
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