Page 45 - The Hunt - Summer 2024

Read’s creations are as much sculptural as they are functional. He’s been in dozens of art and furniture shows, and his “swooping” pieces wouldn’t look out of place in a museum catalog.
Honey Brook’s Josh Stoltzfus has found a niche making cedar chests and steamer trunks with dimensions and features that can be custom-ordered online. Matthew Blackburn recently moved his studio from West Chester to Philadelphia. As he awaits more clients, he’s focusing on millwork, the in-stock decorative materials used in building construction. In Media, Bok Read crafts chairs and tables that tend to visually twirl up from the floor as though the legs are dancing toward the light.
There are fewer artisans like these than ever before. And for those still at it, a trade that used to be about restoring antiques or copying period-style heritage pieces is changing.
After 13 years as an apprentice in a furniture-making studio, Allen Fulmer decided to strike out on his own in 2019. North of Phoenixville in Royersford, near
the Schuylkill River, his Imoshen Studio specializes in Japanese-style daybeds and other furniture. “We recently made a complete traditional tea room inside a home in West Chester,” Fulmer says. “We also made interiors for a complete home for another client—
all the millwork, cabinets, book cases, furniture, everything.”
Fulmer learned the fundamentals as an apprentice. “The thing that changed when I started my own business was to push myself further in my abilities,” he says. “In this case, it was learning the Japanese style of joinery in
The hands of Read at work.
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