We love our customers and we love great photography. We know that you are creative and talented people.  Interior and furniture photography is hard to get right – we know this isn’t easy.  We challenge you to pick up your camera and snap a few photographs of your Hardwood Artisans furniture, show off your talents and maybe win some prizes!

Prizes

One Grand Prize will be awarded, plus a first prize winner in each of the following categories:

• Best Representation of the Furniture
• Most Beautiful Interior
• Best Photo Uploaded to our Facebook Page
• Owners Pick
• Best Bedroom Design

Prizes will be Hardwood Artisans gift certificates in the following amounts:

Grand Prize: $1,000
First Prize: $250 (five will be awarded)
Honorable Mention: Hardwood Artisans T-shirt (10 will be awarded)

The winners will be contacted and announced on Thursday, December 20th. They will be highlighted on our web site and in our newsletter. All photos are due by midnight on Sunday, December 16th – please see our complete rules for more information.

Click here to see the 2010 Photo Contest winners

Judging Criteria

Photographs will be judged on their representation of Hardwood Artisans furniture along with composition, clarity, creativity, color, beauty and faithfulness to each category. We are open minded about this contest and excited to see what you can come up with! Horizontal or vertical formats are fine and feel free to include people or pets. We do not recommend the use of highly manipulative filters as they will distract from the natural beauty of the furniture.

Click here to download the model release form

Contest Rules
1. All entries must be received in one of the showrooms, e-mailed in, or postmarked by midnight on Sunday, December 16th.

2. Photos must be submitted in a digital format (jpg or tiff please). A traditional print is more than welcome to accompany it. We believe that your photograph(s) deserves respect. We prefer to see them at their highest resolution. Photographs that are blurry, dark or too small will not be considered.
3. Entries can be submitted by email, regular mail, uploaded to our Facebook Fan page or dropped off on a CD or flash drive in one of our showrooms. Whichever form of entry you decide is right for you please include your name, phone number, mailing address, email address and category(s) with your submission(s). Pictures, CDs and flash drives will not be returned.
4. Entries uploaded to our Hardwood Artisans Facebook Fan page found at: http://www.facebook.com/HardwoodArtisans will be judged against each other to win a first place in that category and a $250 gift certificate. If you upload an image please also e-mail us a copy of the image with your information. We do not want you to put your personal information on Facebook.
5. Emailed entries should be sent to photocontest@hardwoodartisans.com. We will let you know when we receive an emailed photograph from you. Please put “Photo Contest” in the subject line and limit each email to a maximum of 8 MB. If you need to send multiple emails with all of your wonderful photographs please number each email out of the total being sent in the subject line. For example: Photo Contest 1 of 6, Photo Contest 2 of 6, etc).
6. Entries on a flash drive or CD should be dropped off in a showroom or mailed to Hardwood Artisans, Photo Contest, 21405 Business Ct. Elkwood, VA 22718. Please include a small printed thumbnail of all photos submitted. We will not send you confirmation of receiving your photograph(s) unless requested.
7. The highlight of your photo should be a piece of Hardwood Artisans furniture. Other furniture is allowed in the photograph to enhance the composition but we do not recommend for it to be the main focus.
8. Photos submitted must be of the entrant’s personal residence.
9. People or pets are allowed to be in the photos. For a photograph where a person is recognizable, you must have a model release form for the subject. Click here to download the model release form.  In the case of a minor, please provide one from the person’s parent or guardian and supply it to Hardwood Artisans upon request.
10. Photos must be free of any copyright.
11. Entrants are limited to a maximum submission of 10 photographs.
12. Entrants will be awarded a maximum of 2 prizes.
13. Digitally or altered photographs that do not realistically represent the furniture will be disqualified. Any minor adjustments such as dodging and burning are acceptable.
14. Employees of Hardwood Artisans, their family members or their homes are ineligible to enter the contest.
15. By entering a photograph into our competition you grant Hardwood Artisans the nonexclusive, transferable, royalty-free right to edit, publish or use such photograph in any of our promotional material or advertisements. No photographs will be returned.
16. By entering the contest you certify your acceptance of and adherence to the contest rules. Entries that do not comply with the rules will be disqualified.
17. If you have any questions please contact Julianne: Julianne@hardwoodartisans.com or call 540-423-3060.

We cannot wait to see your photos. Good luck!

Furniture Care and Repair Demonstration

Saturday, October 13th
Demonstration at 11am

Presented by Co-Owner
Mark Gatterdam

Join us in our Rockville Showroom on Saturday, October 13th.  Our finishing expert Mark Gatterdam will demonstrate how to efficiently maintain your hardwood furniture and handle the mishaps of life such as dents, scratches and much more.

We recommend you bring in your most challenging questions and concerns, or even a piece of furniture. There will be hors d’oeuvres & refreshments for you to enjoy.

Address:
Hardwood Artisans
12266K Rockville Pike,
Rockville, MD 20852
301-770-0337

Questions? Email Julianne@hardwoodartisans.com

Click here to take a virtual tour of our Rockville Showroom!

Aaron and Catherine have always had a fine appreciation for watching things unfold.  Aaron told us, “We have always appreciated furniture and viewed it more as functional art as opposed to things-to-put-stuff-on.”

Their house was built in the 1940’s by Aaron’s great grandfather for his Grandfather and Grandmother to live in.  His ever so handy Grandfather also built houses for his three daughters as well as another one for himself.  I’ll let him tell the rest of the story:

“They are all located in Baton Rouges’ Garden District Area adjacent to Louisiana State University.  Upon my grandmother’s passing Catherine and I decided to purchase the home from my dad and my aunt.  We felt strongly about keeping the house in the family; four of the five houses are still owned by relatives.  Our house is very small by today’s standards, just under 1,000 SF.

Catherine and I purchased it in rough condition.  We are on the tail end of completing a massive renovation.  Because the house is so small everything that goes in must be considered very carefully.  Too much of anything, or anything large and bulky, or the wrong color will weigh the rooms down and cause them to appear very crowded and cluttered.  Catherine and I have considered furniture very carefully.  We drew a lot of inspiration from pieces on display at the Festival of the Arts in Laguna Beach, California.

Catherine and I try to make the festival each year while visiting her grandparents on the west coast.  We have been considering furniture to fill this house for over three years…  we don’t get in a hurry.

We visited galleries when traveling on vacation and business.  I even considered building some of my own pieces (believe it or not I can hold my own in the shop.)  What initially drew me to Hardwood Artisans was the use of solid hard woods and the oil finish. No one does this for production… are y’all crazy?  Catherine and I chose standard pieces from the Hardwood Artisans portfolio.

We thought we would push you guys just a little bit with the idea of incorporating a more “unique” headboard.  It wasn’t until I saw the Motus Desk at the Culpeper shop that realized exactly what you guys are capable of.  We were hoping that you all could understand our broad design ideas and then use your talents and ideas to create a design that matched us.  That is exactly what you all did.  To me that is infinitely more difficult and personal then simply taking a customer’s design and building it according to spec.  We certainly appreciate the human element and emotional labor that you and your design team have incorporated so far.  We cannot wait to see the final product.

As far as names…  We’ll defiantly throw one in the hat for consideration…  We’ll need to sleep on it.  I’ll let you know our vote.

Aaron

Here are a few pictures of the final bed!

He was entering the grant with the help of his family to win money to build a new, improved Penny Theater for the Noyes Children’s Library Foundation and was hoping we would help.  I told him I was interested but I did not have a clue what a Penny Theater was… do you?

Long story short the Noyes Children’s Library Foundation and this wonderful family use the Penny Theater to teach children all kinds of lessons.  The theater is small enough to be carried from one place to another yet large enough to host a whole play on it using small caricatures.

I and the rest of Hardwood Artisans believe education very important.  If you are learning the mathematics of building hardwood furniture, why the sky is blue or the technique of social marketing it is important to keep on learning.  I knew Hardwood Artisans had to help with this great project.  I knew we could build an enhanced, updated an perfect Penny Theater.  Here is what an older one looks like:

I received an excited email from Jan a few weeks later that stated:

“Great news! The Noyes Children’s Library Foundation got the grant! In fact, the American Physical Society likes the project so much that they told us it was the very first one they picked out of a very competitive field…”

Even better she told me:

“…We have also now obtained the permissions for use we need from HarperCollins Children’s Books, and from Mary Chapin Carpenter, who composed and sings the music that is the soundtrack for our project, Halley Came to Jackson. Also, Mary Chapin Carpenter’s personal agent told us that Ms. Carpenter is happy and excited about this project and is “glad to be part of it.” Pretty neat!”

That is really neat!

So we scheduled a meeting and the family brought in what we needed to build to educate and inspire youth.

The doors on the side of the theater fold in to make a box that can be rather easily carried.  There is a special piece in the front that has lights on it to light up the stage.

This is a side view of the theater.  The actors are on rods and held behind the theater’s doors.  The theater can be worked by two people – one on each side.  The small space in the front of the theater is for the curtain to run along.

The theater lights up thanks to a very nice electrical box in the back of it and these Christmas lights.  The rods can easily be moved depending on the desired lighting affect.  Each strand of lights can be controlled individually.

Here is the Family that is making all of this happen and Greg.  Stay tuned to see how the new design looks at hopefully we will be able to capture a video of the new theater in action.

Thanks for reading,

Julianne Yurek

The Quince Orchard library folks have now agreed to help us with our project so we want them to have the same theater and technology.  The Noyes Foundation will be paying for the Quince Orchard theater, if you can make that third one. They don’t have any money at all.