Strong Tower Collection

I love to brag on the amazing talent that is here in our furniture manufacturing shop. My greatest delight over the past seven years has been to witness the growth of everyone here and watch them take on more and more responsibilities. Being teachable, they have developed departments and then taught others their job and moved on to developing another department. Along the way, each person has taken an ownership mentality of their department, which is exactly what I hoped for. It began with our now Production Manager and resident Color and Finish Artist, Eddie Hernandez. Eddie’s starting position was that of a sander in the finishing department seven years ago. Unfortunately, the lead finishers at the time saw no promise in him so they purposely withheld information and teaching. When I asked why, they laughed and told me that he wouldn’t ever amount to anything significant. At the time they were all that I had in the finishing department, but that laugh and that statement rubbed me the wrong way. So, I fired them. That turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made. The talent that has emerged out of Eddie since then is amazing. I placed Eddie in charge of the finishing department, which has had more than 10 workers at times and he was so successful that he has moved on to Production Manager over all manufacturing. That includes the carpentry build shop, finishing shop, all the way to delivery. While Eddie has a creative talent in all arts, creating finishes is still his first love. His trademark techniques include hand-mixed paints and stains, custom made textures and distresses, which bring out a 3D effect. He works with a collection of tools, some mundane, and some quite unexpected, which results in varying levels of “erosion,” and an air of timeless beauty. Eddie experiments constantly and it was one of these experiments that resulted in an entirely new collection. Eddie created this weathered naturally aged finish, and when we saw it we immediately knew we needed to create a piece of furniture for this finish he named Harvest. We began designing a piece that would depict one of the great old castles of Europe. What developed is the Strong Tower collection. The first piece that was designed was a console after the Caldecott Castle in England. The piece features a flat screen rising up out of a 3” heavy distressed top. Since then it has taken on many functional designs from a Billiard table and cue rack to entertainment centers with special iron grated openings for sub woofers, to the current project as a massive fireplace surround and mantel that will house a flat screen behind a pair of Old World pocket doors with hand forged wrought iron strap hinges. One of the designs on the piece is the cross cut outs on the towers. It appears as a decorative design, but actually was a military defense. The arrow slits allowed archers to shoot out easy but it was difficult for arrows to come back through. Suggestive in symbolism, those behind the Cross of Christ are safe. The name of the collection comes from Proverbs 18:10. “The name of the LORD is strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.” It’s a reminder that we have a place of safety and refuge in our Lord. Blessings, Nelson J. Nelson