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A Furniture Artist’s Rise To Fame
In the days before it became famous, ‘Joe’s Fine Antiques and Furniture Design’ was know by the name of ‘Joe’s Junk and Antique Shop’. It’s owner, who uses the single name of ‘Gustave’, sometimes wishes that his little shop had kept it’s original name, and that all the fame had passed it by. But after the local newspaper did a write-up on it as part of a series about quaint local businesses, there was no stopping it. Word had gotten out about Gustave’s incredible talents, and now the world was beating a path to the great man’s door.
Gustave’s fans came from the world of interior design, and they were drawn to him the way that groupies are drawn to rock-stars. What attracted them was his remarkable ability to see hidden beauty in beaten-up baby cribs and rusted-out bedsteads. Almost as if by magic, he would transform them into works of breathtaking genius. They ceased to be furniture and became conversation pieces. The interior designers’ very rich clients went mad for it. Gustave could simply not produce enough new pieces to meet their demands. The waiting list for one of his pieces grew in length.
Gustave was by training a furniture designer, and what he did was a sort of furniture recycling. He took pieces that he found at yard and estate sales, or that people had otherwise discarded, and stripped them down. After he had finished stripping them down, he completely remodeled them. In his skilled hands, cheap armchairs from discount furniture stores were transformed into stylish pieces fit to grace the living rooms of business executives. That many a CEO was happily sitting on a chair originally owned by a stressed-out mother of five, was a secret shared only by himself and the interior designer who had purchased it.
The sad truth was that, until the newspaper had run the fateful article, not many people knew that there were furniture designers such as Gustave, who specialized in recycling old pieces. Gustave sometimes wished that it had remained that way.
But Gustave was not only an expert in furniture recycling, he was also an expert in antique furniture. The same talent that allowed him to see the inner qualities in discarded furniture enabled him to unerringly spot legitimate antiques that were hidden in the midst of piles of junk. At a glance, he was able to distinguish genuine Pennsylvania Farmhouse dining sets from lesser copies. Even thick layers of paint could hide them from his sharp eyes.
Once an antique was in his hands he would spend hours lovingly restoring it, no matter how lowly it was. It did not even have to be a piece of furniture. His interest in other antiques started when he discovered a strange-looking object amongst the personal effects of the store’s previous owner. His inner alarm bells went off instantly. Sure enough, after a bit of research he was able to determine that he had a genuine nineteenth century bedpan on his hands. He could not have been more pleased.
Celebrity is not an easy thing for a devoted artist of Gustave’s caliber. If it were not for how much his fans appreciate of his work, he’d throw it all away in an instant. To help him bear the load, he’s taken on an apprentice who goes by the single name of ‘Charles’. As for the bedpan, it now has a new home in the collection of a once famous movie-star whose name Gustave refuses to divulge.
Jen Stark’s Paper Art-Artstreet Miami
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