Home » Blog » N is for Nakashima House, Studio and Workshop, New Hope, PA, A to Z Challenge 2013

N is for Nakashima House, Studio and Workshop, New Hope, PA, A to Z Challenge 2013

N is for Nakashima, both George and Mira, and the home and studio in New Hope, PA.  George Nakashima(1905-1990) was an architect who learned furniture making in a Japanese internment camp in Idaho in WWII, who ended up in Bucks County PA because architect Antonin Raymond sponsored him in 1945.   Mira Nakashima, trained by her father in woodworking, carries on the craft in New Hope.

I went on a tour of the Nakashima Studio in 2003, one of first driving trips after a 12 year hiatus from driving.  I was nervous navigating the Bucks County countryside, but determined to get to the studio, after being enchanted by the Nakashima Room at the Michener Museum.  The tour began in the showroom, which had Nakashima chairs to sit in, and I was transported into comfort, into a wood embrace.

 

The Arts building has a mosaic mural, based on a drawing by the artist Ben Shahn.  This was before I started making mosaics, and I was intrigued by the chunks of glass that made up the lines. Now I know these are smalti.

 

In honor of Orange Tuesday, I leave you with this photo by odhusky on Flickr, of a Nakashima chair:

Source: flickr.com via Margaret on Pinterest

 

My previous A to Z posts.

 

6 comments

  1. What a beautiful post, and how I would love to sit in those chairs. This was very interesting. Thank you so much for sharing your adventure. Now I’m wondering why you gave up driving for twelve years.

    Donna

    • Donna – There is much truth in the idea that the more you avoid something, the more anxiety provoking it becomes, and this happened with driving in my case. Until we got a car with an automatic transmission, I avoided my husband’s manual car, and then when we got the new one, I just kept avoiding.

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