The knowledge in this craft lives in scattered people, and not enough of it gets written down. SAPFM gathers both — at chapter meetings, at the annual conference, on the pages of the journal and the magazine — so the work sharpens with practice and the record of how American furniture is made, and was made, thickens behind us.
Inspired by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, the French cabinetmaker who carried Art Deco's most rigorous version into the late 1930s. Zongker's piece pulls the same vocabulary into a working maker's shop — segmented Macassar Ebony, American Holly diamond inlay across the doors, twenty-four interior drawers in soft curly maple.
Read the article →
One of thirty-six videos in the SAPFM archive. Chapter markers let you jump to specific demonstrations.
Watch the layout chapter (3:42) →Fifteen members, working session on hand-cut dovetails, hosted in a member's shop near Atlanta. Next meeting: June 1, joinery study group, same shop.
See what other chapters are up to →| Chapter | Last met | Next meeting |
|---|---|---|
| Carolinas | Apr 27 | May 25 — pole lathes, member's shop |
| Florida | May 4 | Jun 1 — finishing demo |
| Gulf State | Apr 20 | May 18 — joinery study group |
| Mid-South | — between leads — | |
| New England (North) | May 3 | Jun 7 — Phil Lowe library tour |
| New England (South) | Apr 13 | May 11 — chair-bottom weaving |
| New York | Apr 12 | May 10 — Met study trip |
| Peach State | May 4 | Jun 1 — hand-cut dovetails |
| Philadelphia | Apr 19 | May 17 — Federal card table layout |
| Pittsburgh | Apr 26 | May 24 — Workshop visit |
| Western Reserve | May 3 | Jun 7 — TBA |
| 11 more chapters · full directory → | ||
Four days at the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking in Manchester. Bench demonstrations with Bob Van Dyke, member presentations, the Cartouche Banquet Friday evening, and a Sunday-afternoon hand-cut moldings session for those who can stay.
Bookended by Yale. Wednesday afternoon, a curator-led tour of the Yale University Art Gallery's American decorative arts vault with Patricia Kane and the furniture-study staff. Monday, a full day in the Furniture Study itself — boxes pulled by request.
Two makers — Steve Lash and Mickey Callahan — sat at the same table at the Working Wood in the 18th Century conference in Williamsburg, January 1999. By the end of the year, SAPFM was incorporated. Twenty-five years on: twenty-two chapters, two journals, a national conference each summer, and the quiet network underneath it all.
The tools, the people, the history.
