In the winter of 2005 Scott Gerding and Eddie Schapira aproached me with the idea of building a
chandalier for their new resturant due to open early in the summer. Thier designer sent me a picture she found in a book of lodges
and said she thought it would be about 6-8" wide. In actuality, it came to more like 13" across. Now I like a challenge ,
and I had wanted to do a chandalier for some time, but I was not prepared { that I knew of } for the magnitude of this project.
However, the shear beauty of the picture as well as the joy I knew I would have forgeing and assembling this piece made
me give this some serious thought. I knew that if we could come to an agreed upon price, I would take this job.
I called my metalsmith friend Mark Read of Mark Read Studio and asked him what he thought of this project
and if he would be interested in doing the bronze work and adding the longhorns. We decided that Mark would produce the globes
and that I would produce the ironwork. We met with Scott and Eddie and here you see the result. This piece was riveted
together and the glass was cut by Cristy Dunn.
I would encourage anyone traveling through the Winston-Salem area to dine at Riverbirch Lodge, the planked
smoked is Fantastic! For a map just go to
www.riverbirchlodge.com . I would also encourage people to check out the museum quality artwork of Mark Read at
www.markreadstudio.com. This guy is a true master craftsman.
