AGAIN “Best Texas Style” Award goes to Mesquite Furniture Maker Lou Quallenberg from New Jersey

LLANO, Texas - Nov. 13, 2013 - PRLog -- The Fourteenth Annual Texas Furniture Makers® Show located in Kerrville, Texas held it's Reception and Award Ceremony Saturday night November 9, 2013. Now in its 14th year, the Texas Furniture Makers Show continues to be the foremost exhibition and sale of Furniture Makers in Texas. It is an honor to be juried and accepted to exhibit at the Texas Furniture Makers Show® featuring 36 of Texas's finest Furniture makers, craftsmen and designers working with wood, metal, textiles, glass and more. “This annual juried show features the best furniture makers in Texas”, according to show Chairman Marion Lewis.  This year’s show features pieces by many of our past award winners plus work by some exciting new up and coming artists.

Debbie Minns, KACC Executive Director has said “This show is our premier event of the year. This show is all about the finest woods, the most exquisite design, and the highest levels of craftsmanship.

The Texas artists will have their work on display and available for sale, for the expected 5,000 visitors, collectors, and design professionals attending the show that began October 31, 2013 and goes through November 30, 2013 at the Kerr Arts and Cultural Center 228 Earl Garrett Street in Kerrville, Texas.

Lou Quallenberg of Llano, Texas created the stunning, sculpted and live edge, mesquite Entry table that won the Best Texas Style Category AND the “ Contemporary Calf Leg” Credenza that received an Honorable Mention by the judges listed below.

At an impressive 10.5 ft length the “Susan” Mesquite Entry Table combines and incorporates the artist's sculpted, live-edge style, unique curved design and floating top . His signature curved design was created based on the unique curve of the hand selected mesquite slab top. The laminated curved base, stretchers and aprons flow and follow the curve of the slab top which floats on steel pins. The signature “float” is achieved atop five stainless steel pins. Dimensions: 3' H x 2'W x 10.5'L

As for the “Contemporary Calf Leg” Credenza, this mesquite slab top credenza represents an evolution in the artist’s leg design style. The piece includes his signature, sculpted, live-edge style and floating top. The “float” is achieved atop four stainless steel pins,. This piece features two drawers each curved and fitted into the curved apron that can be opened to full extension, as well as custom sculpted wooden drawer pulls. Dimensions:  2.5"H x 2' W x 6'L

The “Susan” Mesquite Entry Table and the Contemporary Calf Leg Credenza are both pieces that help change the concept of “Texas Style”, bringing a more contemporary, refined look that would fit well in the most sophisticated, Luxury Penthouse in Dallas, Houston, Miami, New York City or London but also would be well suited in a Texas Hill Country style home.

Photos can be seen online at:

www.mesquite-musings.blogspot.com/2013/10/showtime-for-susan-mesquite-entry-table.html


Ironically Lou Quallenberg, a born and raised “Jersey” boy, works primarily with Texas mesquite wood in an area of Texas that has become quite famous for it's mesquite smoked barbecue. Lou uses that same wood they burn in a pit in a much more lasting and artistic way.  Lou Quallenberg has now won the “Best Texas Style” Category at the Texas Furniture Makers® Show five times with his exceptional Mesquite Furniture. Last year in 2012 with his incredible “Drift” Sculptural Coffee Table, then in 2010 with with “Curves“ Mesquite and Starphire® Glass Coffee Table, in 2009 with his Mesquite Partners Desk - a much more radical take on the concept of Texas Style. Lou also won the Best Texas Style Category at the 2008 Texas Furniture Makers Show with his Mesquite Sister Coffee Table created from an unusually large slab of mesquite and a much less dramatic venture off of the more rustic "Texas Style" path.

Lou tries to honor each mesquite tree used to create his pieces and finds a connection with each unique piece of wood that comes through his shop. If you get a chance to look at and touch his work you will probably find it talking to you - perhaps begging to be touched. It is a goal Lou Quallenberg tries to reach in each of his pieces.

Judges for this year's show included:

Asa Christiana is a teacher and Editor of Fine Woodworking, Newtown, CT and has been associated with Fine Woodworking since 2000. Asa lives in Thomaston, CT with his wife and two daughters, in a house (and workshop) he helped to design and build.

Jeff Miller is a furniture designer, craftsman, teacher, and author in Chicago, IL. His furniture has been shown in galleries and shows nationwide, has won numerous awards, and is in the Decorative Arts Collection of the Chicago History Museum. He writes frequently for Fine Woodworking and is the author of the book Chairmaking and Design (Linden Publishing, 2006) and its companion DVD Chairmaking Techniques (Taunton Publishing, 2008). Other books he has written include Beds (Taunton Press, 1999) and the recently released Foundations of Better Woodworking (Popular Woodworking Books, 2012).

Omar Angel Perez is a designer/builder of fine studio furniture and also 2004 Emmy Award winning designer/animator in the world of television animation and design. A native of Houston, TX, his works have been collected and exhibited in many venues. Reflective in his pieces are juxtapositions of various woods, colors and materials, all from around the world, yet all commingling in a playful, sexy drama. These theatrics are your invitation to engage and touch; he believes, after all, that art furniture should be used. His pieces are first functional, then secondly, emotional. Most recently his Stilett”O” series of sky-high heel sculptures has received much international interest. His Stilett”O” heels have been admired by stylists and photographers around the world for fashion and editorial shoots. At Grassi Museum in Leipzig, Germany his high heel sculptures will be part of an exhibit from March-September, 2013. Omar has recently been nominated for a second designer/animator Emmy Award in broadcast television.

Lou Quallenberg's Sculptural “Susan” Mesquite Entry Table wins the “Best Texas Style Furniture” Award and his “Contemporary Calf Leg” Credenza receives an Honorable Mention at the 14^th Annual Texas Furniture Makers Show.
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For photos and additional information contact:
Cheryl Walker     325/247-4304
Lou Quallenberg Studios
http://www.LouQart.com/

Texas Furniture Makers Show®:
http://www.texasfurnituremakersshow.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Texas.Furniture.Makers.Show

Kerr Arts & Cultural Center:
http://www.kacckerrville.com/