Black Oxide Finish on Cold Rolled Steel = H O T !

A GREAT look for finished Steel Furniture and Interior Elements 
that's been around for Nuts & Bolts,
Guns and other tools forever, is one that I recently explored for 
The Fine Custom Furniture,Interior Elements and Lighting that I Design and Fabricate.
Black Oxide- Cold Dipped- by Expert Metal Finishing, River Forest,IL.

The finish almost looks like an Oxidized Bronze !

Adding a "grain" or texture w/ a Heavy Duty ScotchBrite made all the difference!

Rich warm yummy dark brown/black color- enhanced by graining w/ a ScotchBright

The Company that I resourced is in an area of the Western Suburbs of Chicago- just off of North Avenue- between 1st Ave. and 15th Ave.
The Industrial Park area is "technically" River Forest- but has about as much in common w/ River Forest as Cicero does w/Chicago.
Expert Metal Finishing is run by Gus Garza and his Partner from Poland-Jerzy Kozik.
They do have a "lot" charge- which is more than I'd like it to be- but- comparing the time and labor and chemical requirements to do the job in-house, it certainly is a worthwhile Finishing Option for Steel.
The only downside is that they "automatically" want to oil the part you bring- after being oxidized- so it won't rust. I had wanted to either clear coat w/ a Matt Clear PowderCoat-
or use a Hot Wax hand rubbed finish- which must be maintained over time. Getting them- to "understand" this- and to execute- was 50/50.

One of the challenges I face in interfacing w/ Industrial Materials and Processes is that often- They will want to do something a certain way- because - "thats-the-way-we-allways-do-it"
which I find- not always what I want.
And- since I'm paying for the work to be done- shouldn't I be able to get my metal left WITHOUT OIL?
I think so.........
Anyway- if you are looking to get a  warm rich finish on Steel- try:

Expert Metal Finishing

2120 N. West Street

River Grove, IL 60171

708.583.2550

Need Steel? Osorio's Iron and Metal,Chicago,IL.= Service with a Smile!

Square Steel Tubing @ 1.5" Square @ OSORIO'S IRON WORKS,CHICAGO,IL.

Shopping for Steel can sometimes be a Pain-In-The-Ass.
Why?
It's certainly a "Commodity" item. 
Not that Brand "A" is any better or worse than Brand "B".
Steel is Steel.
Yet- if a small fabricator or individual's looking to buy- one length of this, and another length of that- cut in half please (to fit in my Van) - the "rolled eyes" look is certain to appear from the often crabby Steel Man.
Au Contraire- Mon Fraire
......certainly NOT the case @ Osorio's Iron and Metal in Chicago.
When you walk in the door - you are greeted w/a friendly "Hola" by either Jazmina, Angelica,
or Oscar. If they don't have what you are looking for- they will gladly help to source if for you.
For example- Cold Rolled Steel- also called 1018- isn't an off-the-shelf item.
No Problemo.
Jazmina will make a call to her supplier- and be able to provide the material for you w/in a day or so. Same thing for Stainless Steel.

They primarily support the Ornamental Fence Industry- all the small shops in town that make gates,railings and other "wrought iron" that you commonly see- but never pay attention to.
BUT- they are also "used to" Artists, Furniture Designers, and others who aren't pulling up in a PickUp Truck ready to load a 20 foot long piece of Steel.

Osorio's is a recommended Vendor-  as well as someone I "like" to do business with (&you will 2 !)

Bandsaw they use to cut 20 foot lengths to fit in your Vehicle @ OSORIO's 

Osorio Iron & Metal
4515 W. Thomas
Chicago,IL. 60651

773.772.4060

Hard to "find"- Easy to work with!

Custom Wire Bending in Chicago

Chicago is a great town in SO many ways & one of them is the network of Sources and Resources that exist here. One of those Sources is a company that is instrumental to the Display + Visual Merchandising Industry, a company that bends wire in very imaginative ways. Recently I was assigned to source out a company that can do wire-bending on a Production level, as well as assist to develop "sample(s)" or prototypes.

                                       Chicago Wire Design did not disappoint.

Worktable where all the "magic" occurs

Overview of Main Workroom with print of project in foreground

Bending a bracket that The Shop Foreman designed "on-the-fly"

Roberto has been working for many years at Chicago Wire and now runs the Company. He deals with all sorts of creative types- from designers to engineers.They can and do produce display racks, floral display armatures, lampshades, and a huge variety of wire bent items.

Chicago Wire Design
1750 N. Kimball Avenue
Chicago,IL.60647
773.342.4220

Steel & Wood : : WOOD + Steel

Often, "Studio Furniture" is produced in either Wood,
or in Steel. 

By Woodworkers...or Metalworkers.

Rarely do Makers have the ability or skill(s) to effectively combine both of these materials in one elegantly integrated design.
I believe that I have achieved this and wish to promote, that aspect of what I do.

Which led to the layout of these 2 postcard designs- not fully detailed- but effectively layed out to incorporate some of the image that I shot (and a few that David Ditzler shot for me!- Thanks DAVID!) 

Often, when designing a piece like this- it's best to consider the "Less-Is-More" philosophy. 

On the other hand, leaving out other examples of my being capable of integrating Wood & Steel in my Stair Railing Designs and in my Custom Lighting Design as well as other home furnishing would take away from knowing about the full-range of what I can offer to an Interior Designer, Architect or Home Owner.

So, having comped this card up- I feel that by showing my 2 new pieces (top and bottom of the card) and by inserting smaller shots of my Lighting and Furniture, I have been able to display the range of skills and services I can bring to the "table".

So, having comped this card up- I feel that by showing my 2 new pieces (top and bottom of the card) , I have been able to display the integration of different skills and services I can bring to the "table".

Designing an effective Mailer has to meet one main requirement : using a phrase that my friend Tom Job once coined...... "Cubicle Worthy"! 

That is, is the design and visual impact of the piece strong enough to not only be posted on the walls of a persons cubicle - but is that card also going to create a buzz, cause attention to be be drawn to it by various co-workers and colleagues stopping by the "intended target audiences" cubicle?

So, I ask you my lovely readers of this blog- which of these two different 5" by 7" postcard Mailers do you feel is "Cubicle Worthy" in their intended representation of my Wood and Steel abilities?

Polisher's in & around Chicago

Polishing Steel is a lost art.

Many, many moons ago- Chicago once had more Metal Fabrication business' than any other US city. (This statistic came from my former Abrasive Salesman, so he may have been slightly biased....)
Much of the Metal Fabricated was at one time polished - either prior to plating or as a stand alone final finish.
Metal Polishing is a skill, that sadly has been "lost", being replaced by other cheaper, faster means of making a piece looks attractive. (Unless you're Apple, and can hire forced, cheap Chinese labor to polish those iPad/iPhone cases for pennies!!)
In the course of Fine Furniture Design & Fabrication (which is what I do) it's often necessary to polish the metal. AND- certain metals like Stainless Steel are "begging" to be polished-
that's how they are engineered.

Finding Custom Polishers has been a challenge for me.
All of them either want to charge an "Arm-&-a-Leg" to do what they do....
or "only" do production runs of 100's of parts at at a time.. .
or - have simply moved, died off (not a good job for respiratory health, and all polishers seem to smoke as well ??) -
or gotten away w/ poor customer (Joe @ A & B Polishing??!) service/ bad Attitudes (Tony @ Millennium Polishing - you know what I'm talking about???!) for too long....and I refuse to support/ do business w/them.

Until-I-met-Henry!!

What-a-breath-of-fresh-air, this guy is.
Nice to do business with. Takes great pride in his work. Fairly priced. Delivers on Time.
No attitude. Hablemos Espanol. Excellent work. Knows Metal. Knows Polishing.
A True Professional (Polisher).

When I brought Henry the base to this Stainless and Live Edge Wood Table- he needed to rePolish the Stainless that had been carefully pre-polished by another Chicago Resource/gem- Tom @ Griffin Plating. No questions. He totally "got" what needed to be done. And- when I returned to pick up my parts- my jaw dropped.

Premier Metal Finishing
6115 W. Belmont Avenue
Chicago,Ill 60641
773.427.6650

NEW Postcard for Kramer Design Studio > Best of 2010

Designing anything for one's self is always a challenge.

WHY ?

Any idea, how "easy" it is to "please yourself" ? -

Noooo......?!?!

Not that way...... I mean to actually create a thing that you'll

be certain will satisfy all of your conditions/constraints!

Designing a new Postcard- for use in Promoting & Marketing my services is an excellent way to summarize the year - in the same fashion that magazines and other media will cull a listing

of the "Best Of_____".

So after a review of all of the items that I produced this past year (and documented properly!)

I came up with these 5 items (actually, 5 images, with 2 photos showing a Light AND a piece of Furniture, so actually 7 items! ).

Do the images properly reflect my full range of skills /abilities?

Do the images impart as much attention to detail as I give to my work?

To me, there's nothing worse, than an artist/designer presenting themselves to the world in an unprofessional manner.

I mean- what good is showing a dark photo, or an image of ones installation that was taken with a camera phone? What's the point?

So, what I'm trying to say- is that after many layouts and iterations of this card were created I settled on this layout.

I hope that it proves to be an effective NEW tool in my Marketing Arsenal.

"1000 Ideas For Creative Reuse"

Quarry Books recently published a softcover book on rePurposed Furniture and Furnishings called- "1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse"- featuring my work (5 images) and the work of my brother

(6 images).

This book is written by an artist from Eureka ,California named Garth (can't help but think of Waynes World when I hear that name- sorry dude!) Johnson who found my work thru flickr (ahhh- the wonders of Social Networking/ aka Web 2.0 !)

Garth chose to break his book into chapters that group the work into what I feel are slightly confusing categories.

For example, his first chapter is titled "Paper,Collage, + Assemblage"- which implies a material based taxonomy - but then other chapters are arranged by function (for example the chapter titled "Housewares + Furnishings" ),

but, then there's a chaptered titled "Geek Craft + Man Craft" (which sounds waaaaay to much like a term HGTV uses called a Man Cave- which I cant stand!) -

so - I'm a little confused by his method of taxonomy.

Also - for visual purposes - they chose to display the books photographs with out any text to explain/support what the image is.

The only text is a credit for who made the piece and who photographed the object.

All of the explanation of materials used- what the object was reclaimed, upcycled from, exists as an "Image Directory", which I found very clunky to use when reading this book.

What I'm pleased about is how diverse the range of creativity is that Garth has assembled in this book- it's truly wonderful to see how vastly skilled and talented artist and designers can be.

And- it's the very first book that has published my work- and the work of my brother Aaron Kramer. (.......who's counting, that there's 6 images of his work- and only 5 images of my work- really- who's counting!?!?)

This book has spawned some ideas for me personally, to publish a book- that showed more examples of this vernacular-

but shown in situ.

How many times do most folks need to see how a piece of Furniture or a Lamp will "look" in their home- or a home "like" their home......so simply showing an object without seeing it in it's context...anyway- I don't want to give away too many ideas for my book.

Here's the ISBN to order the book:: 978-1-59253-540-8