Summer apprentice Hannah D’Errico left too soon for graduate studies in ole Mississippi for us to get her on camera. In an internship in Richard Hardie’s studio this July, she designed and crafted this small occasional table with drawer, the top being a soft spalted maple that took three coats of floor varnish to harden against scratching. Mr Hardie takes some credit for dovetails, but the rest is pure Hannah, who plans to return to the area following advanced woodworking studies.
Avi Elkins was a second Summer apprentice with Richard Hardie, twenty years after his father Jamie studied furniture making under the master craftsman in his the Northampton studio. Avi is putting together young peoples’ furniture building course, which Mr Hardie will introduce in the community this Fall, reprising Avi's own experience at Amherst’s Dancing Possum—woodworking for 3rd to 6th graders. The kneeling chair is a common design, yet presents a good number of technical problems to set a body at rest, including a deep-carved walnut seat.
Richard Hardie has just, mid-summer, joined Lauren Clark Fine Art, a gallery in Great Barrington, MA. He is showing a natural Trunk Table, coffee height, and his latest piece, a larger coffee table with natural edge trestle legs. The gallery is open Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday 11 AM to 6 PM; Friday and Saturday 11 AM to 7 PM; and closed Tuesdays. Works may be displayed in rotation (the new piece, left, is unfinished).
