Going with the grain: Pair repurpose used wood to create handmade furniture

Not everyone can see beauty in a stack of weather-beaten, sun-bleached wood. But in the hands of Tommy Banaszek and Jeanne Sullivan, salvaged wood turns over a new leaf and is transformed into handmade furniture.

KnoT New WooD, located in Kittredge at 26030 Highway 74, is the brainchild of Banaszek and Sullivan, who created the business to showcase wood repurposed into elegant, rustic or highly polished custom designs.

“People come in here and want to touch all the different woods,” said Sullivan.

Tucked around back of the building, the shop will have a grand opening on Oct. 2 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. A discount is offered on furniture for people who live within a 30-mile radius, and they’ll deliver.

“We like to keep the locals happy,” said Banaszek.

Banaszek’s and Sullivan’s enthusiasm for their company is evident in the rapid-fire conversation, the laughter and the promise in each piece of wood. Beetle-kill, storm-damage, rusted nails and saw marks tell the wood’s tale.

“You wonder about the people who touched the wood in the past, who built the barns or whoever has been in that facility,” said Sullivan. “It’s unique, and I think that’s why we both do this.”

Banaszek never sits still; he said his mind is always working on an idea, or his hands are scraping away time and the elements from a piece of wood. He shows off broken and scarred timbers with the same fondness people reserve for pictures of their children.

Banaszek, who polished his trade restoring historic properties for the National Park Service, and Sullivan, a former executive assistant, estimate they’ve made thousands of pieces of furniture — 1,500 this year alone.

Most of the time they discover their raw material in burls, old mines, barns, flooring and building project remnants, or they fish chunks of wood from a river. One impressive find is from shipping crates sent from India in the 1930s. The crates carried marble slabs for the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver and include teak woods, blond and red mahogany, and rosewoods. Some of the wood has come from trees that are now extinct.

“We’ve had arborists in here that can’t identify some of this stuff … it hasn’t been allowed in the country since the 1920s,” said Banaszek.

Banaszek and Sullivan favor Colorado woods — Douglas fir, ponderosa pine — but they also use walnut and cherry wood. Banaszek said he likes working with old dark walnut the best, and each furniture piece is hand-tooled. Their custom-crafted furniture includes tables, bookcases, chairs, wine racks, cabinets, signs, Zen-beds and flooring. Accents can include metal details and natural slate tops, chosen for their texture and veins of color.

“Customers have ideas in mind, and we help to refine it,” said Banaszek.

They don’t charge to design a piece of furniture and ask for half the cost down and the other half on delivery. Orders take between 60 and 90 days to produce. Each piece is handmade with a minimum of power tools; the work is almost all done by hand.

“If we run a big machine on it, it will take it all off, and you just have a flat board with no character,” Banaszek said.

When not making furniture, they travel around the country looking for would-be treasures.

“It’s fun traveling to find hidden treasures, and each piece has its own history and story to it,” Sullivan said. “It’s a conversation piece and a work of art.”

Occasionally they meet the people who owned a structure and can collect photographs of the wood before it was reclaimed.

They estimate they burn through about 20,000 pounds of reclaimed wood, and said it’s getting harder to keep good pieces in stock. Springtime is hunting season, when they tour the country to find raw materials and scramble to get pieces made before the rigors of the craft fair circuit. With each new wooden discovery, there’s always one question on both their minds.

“What will we create next?” said Sullivan.

For more information about KnoT New WooD, call 303-670-8184 or e-mail knotnewwood@msn.com.

This story ran in September 29, 2010 edition of the High Timber Times and ran as the Upslope segment of the Canyon Courier.

Where art, engineering collide: Conifer kaleidoscope maker is a colorful ‘hack of all trades’

Inside the kaleidoscopes made by Henry Bergeson is a secret that tumbles and collides within the mixed-up world of color and light.

Bergeson, of Conifer, builds kaleidoscopes at his studio using a multitude of skills, from metal- and woodworking to computer design and jewelry making.

“I call myself a hack of all trades,” said Bergeson, who takes something as practical as wood, mirrors and colors and turns them into elegant wood-case kaleidoscopes.

Finding out how the simple mechanism of a kaleidoscope works can be as disconcerting as discovering that Santa Claus isn’t real.

Bergeson said the illusion of multiple layers of bright colors is actually created by two or three mirrors set at specific angles in the shape of a pie wedge. The mosaic effect is really a circle of reflections upon reflections.

Bergeson’s studio and workshop are both brightly lit with natural light, and the workshop hosts a forest of sliced burls, thick sawdust and wood stacks. He selects the raw wood for the scopes’ wooden cases and shapes them with computer-driven manufacturing machines. He said the wood grain relieves him of the duty of decorating the outside of the scopes. Polished to a glossy sheen, each is unique.

“We sand the hell out of them,” Bergeson said.

The scopes are fitted with glycerin-filled cylinders called “object cases” that hold an eclectic collection of trinkets, which provide the subtle or vibrant source for the kaleidoscope’s psychedelic mosaics.

“It’s like cooking. You have to see how things go together,” Bergeson said. “It’s all fairly subjective, so I never know if it’s the right combination or not.”

Bergeson’s recipe for the hues is more about color and texture than just a random toss of objects. Items inside the kaleidoscope run the gamut from Chinese symbols to junk jewelry.

Bergeson estimates he’s made 50,000 pieces in the last 24 years. The scopes allow Bergeson to come full circle with his skills as a mechanical engineer. Creating kaleidoscopes also lets him hold the finished product in his hand, something he missed when working as an engineer.

Bergeson made his first kaleidoscope in 1986, and his boss told him he probably could make more money producing kaleidoscopes than working as an engineer. Bergeson wonders if that compliment was a subtle message, because a short time later, Bergeson found himself unemployed.

“I had no idea about the whole thing of kaleidoscopes and that there were people making them,” Bergeson said.

Sir David Brewster made the first kaleidoscope in the early 1800s. The popular toy experienced a resurgence and sophisticated upgrade sometime in the 1970s.

Bergeson called the kaleidoscope “the television of the time period.”

Now a one-man operation, Bergeson once had enough demand to employ several people, but the ailing economy has left consumers with less disposable income for fanciful purchases.

Bergeson offers eight different models that range in price from $140 to $5,000. The scopes carry names such as King’s Ransom, Moontide and the Corda Lee, named after Corda Lee “Corky” Weeks, a friend and kaleidoscope maker who helped Bergeson get his business off the ground.

The elite scope in his shop is the Honey Jar, which was showcased at the American Folk Art Museum in New York City. Bergeson said he plans to make only 25 of this design, with production starting soon.

Bergeson also hopes to get more of his kaleidoscopes out to art shows and into gift shops soon.

“It’s time to get it in high gear and start making some more of these,” he said.

Bergeson’s scopes are sold online and can be custom ordered. For more information, visit www.henrybergeson.com.

This story ran in the September 22, 2010 edition of the High Timber Times. Sidenote: I was told this story was printed as it was written, with only minor AP-style edits.

Nuclear family fusion: Golden Stix Chinese Restaurant

For Jason San, owning a successful Chinese-fusion restaurant in Conifer is a family affair, one that involves a hearty helping of all foods Asian.

Opened in January, Golden Stix Chinese Restaurant, at 25567 Conifer Road, Unit 105, features a variety of freshly made Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Hunan and Vietnamese food. Though it offers both dine-in and take-out, there’s no rush to eat and leave at the Golden Stix.

“With the full belly, life’s a little more relaxed,” San said.

San, 30, of Littleton was born in Hong Kong and came to America at age 6. He alternates easily between his diverse worlds: ancient Oriental medicine cures for a cold and downloading software updates for his trendy cell phone. But San’s passion is for all things that can be done well.

“That drive keeps burning, and makes you want to strive and go for perfection,” San said, “especially when you have an expectation of where you’re going to go. (The restaurant) far exceeded my expectations.”

San’s father and uncles have 40 years of culinary experience among them, and they created the menu and prepare the food. San says he pretty much stays out of the kitchen.

His previous jobs in sales gave him the entrepreneurial background, and he learned a basic formula: keep up the quality, keep up the service, create the right ambience, and people will come — and come back. The restaurant has eight tables and seats about 30, and the décor is a mix of Asian culture, complete with Buddha and bamboo, and has a dash of modernity in the gold-flecked walls.

“It might be small, but it’s cozy,” he said.

San sees a lot of potential in the restaurant’s location on the east end of the King Soopers shopping center. He thinks the area could become a social center for young people. San, a former Los Angeles resident, was surprised to find there’s no movie theater or bowling alley in Conifer.

Right now, his biggest challenge as owner of a Conifer restaurant is to get people to try his food, though they might not be accustomed to the fusion taste.

The menu encompasses a world of Asian favorites: soups, appetizers and entrees such as Mongolian Madness, Incredible Curry, Goodies in Garlic, Sesame Sensations, and Sweet and Sour Delight. San said meals are prepared with fresh vegetables and meats cooked to order and prepared with very little oil and a minimum of monosodium glutamate. The restaurant does not yet have a liquor license.

Rose Bradford of Morrison ordered take-out and carried her order in a traditional brown paper bag. She said she’s been to the restaurant a few times, and the extra-spicy Pad Thai is her favorite.

“The food is fresh and great,” Bradford said. “I give it a 10.”

San said his favorite dish is the sesame chicken, and he’s proud of the recipes created by his family.

“When you bite into it, you actually get chicken, not just oil and batter,” he said. “It’s sweet with a hint of spice.”

For San, the Golden Stix menu is a wonder of tastes and choices, and he’s proud to serve what he calls the best Chinese food in Conifer.

“I’m not here to change the world with this little restaurant,” San said. “But I want to create a sense of comfort, and people can just relax and enjoy the experience.”

This story ran in the September 15, 2010 edition of the High Timber Times

Stairways to remembrance: 1,500 climb Red Rocks stairs to honor victims of 9/11

Some 1,500 people climbed a total of 5 million stairs at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Saturday in a somber ceremony remembering the nearly 3,000 people who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Area firefighters and those who simply wanted to remember climbed the amphitheater’s stairs nine times to commemorate the 110 flights that New York City firefighters climbed to try to save the occupants of the World Trade Center. The event raised more than $50,000 to help the Twin Towers Orphan Fund, the West Metro Fire Foundation and the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. The Metro West Fire Protection District sponsored the event, which began at 9:03 a.m. to commemorate the moment United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower.

Also on hand was the family of Jason Dahl, the Littleton pilot who was the captain of United Flight 93, the flight bound from New Jersey to San Francisco that crashed near Shanksville, Pa. Terrorists had intended for that plane to hit the White House.

Some of the firefighters did the stair-climb in full bunker gear, while others carried axes, hoses and equipment.

Jacob Ware, a firefighter from the Elk Creek district, climbed the stairs with 50 pounds of gear. Last year, the climb took him a little less than an hour.

The event is symbolically important, said Don Lombardi, deputy chief for West Metro Fire Rescue.

“The New York firefighters went into the smoke, the heat, and they knew they were going to their deaths,” Lombardi said.

Jesse Winefeldt, who has been a firefighter with Elk Creek for a year, carried his son, Jake, 2, on the stair-climb. On Sept. 11, 2001, Winefeldt was in college, and he recalled a sense of disbelief as he watched the televised images.

“I saw it on TV and thought, ‘That’s not real,’ ” Winefeldt said.

A direct connection to 9/11

As participants checked in and received their blue T-shirts, they could choose to carry with them the name of one of the 343 fallen rescue workers.

Volunteer Armando Encinias of Lakewood, who worked at the registration table, said he was surprised when someone asked him for a specific name of someone who died that day.

“You meet people who say they knew somebody,” said Encinias, who is training to be a firefighter. “But to actually have someone standing right there was an eye-opener.”

Mary Kay of Pine walked the steps along with her dog, Mocha, and carried a Sept. 12, 2001, copy of the New York Times with its stunning images. Kay walked for her daughter, Kay Strozewski, who was in the South Tower and who survived, scrambling down 69 floors in high heels and dodging debris. Strozewski made it out of the building 15 minutes before it collapsed.

“She made the right decisions,” said Kay. “If she had done something different, she wouldn’t be here today.”

Nourishment for the climbers

On that fateful day in 2001, Keith Arnold of Littleton stood on top of a building in New Jersey and watched the horror at the World Trade Center unfold. For Arnold, the main emotion he felt that day was confusion, and he remembered the overpowering smell of acrid smoke as the towers thundered to the ground.

Arnold said he saw the second plane hit the North Tower and never considered the towers could fall.

Later that day, he watched people gathered at a ferry terminal who appeared to be waiting for family or friends. Arnold said he didn’t see a single reunion.

Arnold had friends and acquaintances who died that day, and he still hasn’t returned to visit Ground Zero.

“I never drove back to work that way again,” Arnold said.

Last year, Arnold participated in the first Red Rocks stair-climb and wanted to do something this year for the climbers. The owner of the Garlic Knot restaurants, he and his staff decided to add a twist to the event by providing 4,000 slices of pizza and garlic knots to the stair-climbers.

“It’s going to be a good day,” he said, “but it’s important to remember the sacrifices made by those firefighters who were trying to save people.”

This story ran in the September 15, 2010 edition of the High Timber Times, the Canyon Courier and the Columbine Courier. Photographer: Matthew Jonas, photo editor for Evergreen Newspapers

Barry Gordon: Fighting cancer with hope and love

Bailey resident Barry Gordon has a fantastic life of music, marathons, ski runs, horseback rides and favorite hikes in the Colorado mountains. For him, it’s about the best in life – including the best beliefs that result in pristine health. Gordon’s an explorer, and is now exploring alternative health options to keep him alive.

“We’re planning on the ‘heal,’” said Gordon. “We’re smiling and laughing through the process at this point, we’ve cried in between.”

Gordon, 63, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in February 2009. It’s an extremely rare cancer for someone his age; it’s normally a cancer found in young people. While skiing moguls he had slight hip discomfort but a leg fracture soon after led to a cancer diagnosis. Seven days later, he began treatments and since 2009, he has endured surgery and eight rounds of chemotherapy. A little more than a month ago, doctors found 13 brain tumors and he has completed full-head radiation. Surgery is scheduled in the next few weeks, according to his wife of 29 years, Susan.

Gordon said he’s recovering from the radiation treatment and regaining his mental function. Radiation, he said, left its mark took its toll on much in his life.

“It affects everything but the damn tumor,” said Gordon.

Gordon said they’re at a crossroads in terms of his healthcare and they had to make a decision about his treatment.

“Conventional medicine gave up on us last year,” said Gordon.

He and his family began searching for hope and found it in alternative medicine.

The treatment he’s seeking consists of immuno-therapy, a combination of diet and attitude, combined with astute and complex visualization processes, positive thinking and mind over matter. He said his optimism, despite what conventional medicine says, is very, very high. He believes that with coaching that he can work on energy and self-healing that will help him rid himself of his cancer.

“Cancer provides a kick in the butt,” he said.

Gordon said that in a way, it has made his life simpler.

“It eliminates so many other options, it eliminates laziness when you’re confronted with life and death,” he said. “You have two options, you can choose to live or choose to die and you can ease yourself in that direction. There are decisions to be made and it forces you to be proactive in one direction or another.”

Gordon said the outpouring of love he has received from friends, family and those close to him has made him see a newer, more powerful side to love.

“The real world doesn’t allow for that kind of intensity of pure heart,” he said.

He said he’s found strength and grace from other people with the same diagnosis who have faced their lives with courage and love.

He said he has not one regret, other than knowing what this has put his loved ones through. But he said it has given an opportunity to give strength back and forth to each other.

Gordon, a real estate broker with Dynamic Properties in Bailey, hasn’t worked for two years. Susan said they had been denied their loan modification on their mortgage will save money and they try to keep up with their bills and live an even trimmer lifestyle. Susan said it’s amazing what things you don’t need.

“We need the basic staples, roof, gas, electric and food,” said Susan, “Other than that, the other needs are emotional, nurturing kind of needs. As far as surviving and living, when a loved one is compromised in their health … you don’t need very much, you just need to hang onto the love.”

A few weeks ago, friends held a garage sale and raised $4,000 and received an in-kind donation of $500 from the local website, 285Bound. The hope is to raise $24,000 for his alternative treatment, which they believe will save his life. Gordon will travel to clinics in Santa Barbara and Mexico for treatments that include inducing fevers to help heal the body, what he calls a natural way of healing and one insurance companies may not cover.

Donations have totaled $9,512.

Many Conifer and Bailey businesses have volunteered to place donation jars with a picture of Gordon’s tanned, smiling face and his story on the jar, in order to raise money to help the family pay its bills and get Gordon the treatment he wants.

Gordon plans on being cured from his cancer in the next few months. He said he wouldn’t allow negative thoughts while working with the energy he hopes will help him heal and give him the outcome he and his family so badly want.

“I’m going to get the best ending to the story,” he said.

This story ran in the September 1, 2010 edition of the HIgh Timber Times