Meet the talented men and women whose work appears in many of Birmingham's most fabulous homes.
By Mary Ellen Stancill
Mac Wright and Steve Ledford,Heirloom Ironworks,blacksmiths
Heirloom Ironworks
2328 Second Ave. S.; 323-5590
As Blacksmiths Mac Wright and Steve Ledford tell it, the art of blacksmithing nearly died out in Birmingham during the 1970s and ‘80s. But in the 1990s, there was a rebirth of interest in hand-forged metalwork, “a new iron age” as Ledford explains. “People were building bigger, nicer homes and looking for a higher level of craftsmanship,” says Wright. Even with this resurgence, the Birmingham blacksmith community consists of just a handful of shops and craftsmen. In fact, Wright and Ledford explain that most blacksmiths working in Birmingham today garnered their skills under the tutelage of one person. “You’ll find most of the people who do blacksmithing work [in Birmingham] either worked for John Beckwith or learned their craft from someone who learned from him,” says Wright. “It’s a pretty small community.”
For years, Wright did blacksmithing as a hobby. But in the late 1990s, he was laid off from his corporate job and metalwork evolved into full-time, self-employment.
About eight years ago he opened Heirloom Iron, primarily crafting hand-forged iron furniture for wholesale.
Then three years ago Steve Ledford, a life-long blacksmith who learned the craft from his uncle in Bibb County, came on board and brought his expertise with architectural ironwork. Today Heirloom Iron is known for architectural forged ironwork, but they’ve also created fire screens, dining room tables, beds, light fixtures and even a 12-foot long dragonfly for a sign. Recently, Crystal Joiner joined Heirloom Iron, perfecting her craft at the Second Avenue South shop.
At Heirloom Iron, everything is hand-made. “We make our components,” says Wright. “Nothing is store bought.” “Steel is very malleable,” says Ledford. “With the heat and a little bit of skill you can do some amazing things.”
While many blacksmith techniques and tools go back hundreds of years, a few modern inventions do help make the present day process a little easier. For instance, a propane powered forge is used much more regularly than the coal forge and a massive electric hammer is used in addition to the traditional man-powered hammer and anvil.
It can take anywhere from six weeks to several months for a railing job to be completed because every job is different. “We don’t build anything twice,” says Wright. “Although you see some design similarities, it’s a different animal every time … It’s not a piece of base molding. It’s something that when you walk in, you’re going to see it, like a huge mahogany bookshelf. That’s the level of quality we’re trying to shoot for.”
Lisa Opielinski,custom decorative painting
Lisa Opielinski
444-9988
Twenty years ago Lisa Opielinski saw a tabletop painted to look like marble and thought to herself, “I can do that.” So she tried it. Soon after, she had a Valentine’s Day party and her guests kept touching the tabletop to feel the cold marble. When they realized the surface wasn’t marble, they couldn’t believe it and wanted to know how she had done it. “It was so strange,” she recalls. “I just kind of already knew what to do.” From there, Opielinski began doing custom painting for decorators and builders, learning different techniques on her own through trial and error and plenty of practice.
Today Opielinski does decorative painting fulltime but, after a recent milestone birthday, she also felt the push to begin painting canvases, highly-textured, abstract pieces that utilize the skills she has honed doing her decorative work. Her decorative painting jobs range from a single piece of furniture to a room or the entire interior of a house. Getting to know the client, seeing their space and understanding their likes and dislikes is important. “When you’re doing someone’s home, it’s as personal as doing their hair,” she says. Opielinski will gold leaf an entire ceiling or add texture and depth to a wall with layers of paint and burlap.
She makes fairy tales come to life in murals on children’s room walls, antiques massive mirrors and once even painted a toilet seat to look like tortoise shell. “Earthy opulence” is how she describes the look most of her clients are after these days, a mix of metallics with distressed and wood-grain finishes.
Most of the time Opielinski uses traditional tools for her work—brushes, rags, trowels and putty knives—but occasionally she’ll improvise with found materials. For instance, she used bubble wrap to add texture to a strip of copper paint in her office to achieve the look of hammered metal. When not working on a client’s project, Opielinski experiments with different techniques and color combinations in her own home.
Her living room ceiling and walls are painted to look like the drapes of a tent, plaster details are silver leafed in the entry hall and her first piece—the “marble” top dresser—still holds a special place in her bedroom.
Mike Gibson and Ben Strout,Place Collaborative,custom furniture makers
Place Collaborative
1806 Third Ave. N.; 421-9441
Neither Mike Gibson nor Ben Strout set out to go to architecture school. Rather, both entered college with the goal of becoming doctors.
But along the way, they each changed their minds and headed to Auburn for architecture school, Gibson leaving a basketball scholarship at the University of South Alabama and Strout realizing the woodwork he did as a side job to pay for medical school would actually become his career.
During free time in architecture school, Gibson and Strout began a business designing and constructing wooden furniture—in a 25 by 50 foot rented storage unit. Today they’ve moved up in the world, to an office space across the street from the Alabama Theatre with a 5,000- square-foot workshop just a few blocks away, and Gibson is just one test away from his architecture licensure.
They’ve expanded their business as Place Collaborative, a design/build firm that also encompasses Appleseed Workshop, the furniture making side of the business.
“We want to think about architecture holistically,” says Strout, “to think about every part of design, the whole nine yards, from basic construction to building the furniture inside.”
But they also enjoy creating pieces that complement other architects’ and builders’ visions and work. “We believe that architecture is a great starting point to design anything,” says Gibson. “If you can design a building, you can design anything from furniture to a toothbrush.” When designing a piece of furniture, such as a dining room table, they like to go to the client’s home, eat a meal with them and really get a sense of how they live in their home. Then Gibson is the concept guy while Strout does most of the construction—figuring out the details, joinery, how the pieces will come together and tweaking the original idea. For example, Gibson asked Strout to make a structure using metal and wood that looked like someone tied a rope around a brown paper bag but didn’t crush the bag completely. In the end, Strout’s finished product is an artistic yet functional spin on this original vision.
Both Gibson and Strout are drawn to clean lines, a modern interpretation of things, and many of their clients have a green focus in mind.
“We’re really focused on environmentally- conscious design, being sustainable and thinking about the durability of what we’re building,” says Strout.
“In my experience, modern design is always going to be more environmentally friendly and conscious because it’s less. Anytime you’re embellishing, every time you see an added detail it costs money, it costs trees. You can do the same thing, make a few broad strokes that are really clean and nice and you wind up with what I think is a better product because it’s cleaner and it does exactly what it’s supposed to do. It’s more concise; it’s more to the point.”
Gary Sasnett, Sasnett Inc., cabinets and kitchens
Sasnett Inc.
1916 28th Ave. S., Homewood; 870-0000
Gary Sasnett describes the process of designing and building kitchens as complex but not complicated. With pencil in hand—“I’ll die drawing by hand,” he says—he creates the plans that the craftsmen in his Irondale shop bring to life. “You can draw one line on a piece of paper and it never ends,” says Sasnett. “You can stretch it, turn it, curve it, round it. It’s fun just to imagine that you can take a pencil with lead and create something and turn it into reality.”
Twenty-eight years ago, at age 19, Sasnett started a business making furniture out of his basement. His father and grandfather realized his love for woodworking and told him they’d help him get started, promising $1,000 each if he would put up his own $1,000 first. Today Sasnett is renowned by clients in Birmingham and along the East Coast of the United States, and kitchens are his forte. Sasnett describes what he does as service. “Making cabinets is a byproduct,” he firmly states.
When he first meets with a client Sasnett says the most important thing is listening to what the person is saying, discerning what they’re thinking, what their needs are and how to make the end result combine all of these factors. He believes that the working triangle—stove, sink and refrigerator—is still the key to a properly functioning workspace. A balance of simplicity while exceeding expectations is always the goal.
Sasnett endlessly studies European history and architecture to understand the difference between regions and styles: Tuscan vs. French; Country French vs. French Country. “It’s my job to educate the client when they ask what is Art Nouveau and Biedermeier and Art Deco,” says Sasnett. “You can marry up all of those three into one piece of furniture but you have to understand the origin of [the styles] … You must know that in order to service the client.” He seeks to make his work true to its origins and true to the home’s architectural style while also incorporating the added amenities of modern life. Each project begins with a theme and has primary and secondary concerns listed in two organized columns. This plan is carefully followed to ensure his projects avoid complication. Because he’s involved in every step of the process—designing, building and i n s talling—he can ensure the project is completed in a timely fashion within the client’s budget.
His only rule for his clients is that they be honest with him along the way and that at the end of the project they answer his one question: “What did I do wrong?” This helps the client relieve stress and enables Sasnett to improve with each new project.
Magali Somers Maus,conservation and restoration of fine antiques
Magali Somers Maus
240-0014
Magali Somers Maus travels the United States providing conservation and restoration services for museums, private organizations, private collectors and antique dealers. Her career began in New York City, but in 2005 Magali and her husband Guido Maus visited friends in Birmingham and fell in love with the city. They moved here in 2005 and when a storefront came open in Mountain Brook Village, they moved their antiques business, Henri Maus Antiques, to Birmingham as well.
Now, Magali does antique restoration and conservation in her Birmingham workshop, travels to care for her clients’ antique collections and is hopeful that her business will continue to grow in the Birmingham area.
Maus has always been surrounded by antiques and fine art. Growing up in Belgium, her parents were antique dealers who, even when she was very young, took her along to art openings and museums.
But when it was time for her to go off to school, Maus chose economics and finance. Two years later, she realized that the art world was really where she belonged, particularly antique conservation and restoration.
Following her father’s guidance she returned to her hometown and spent four years learning cabinet making. Then, Maus began looking for a school that would teach her antique restoration and conservation.
The school she found was West End College, located in a castle between London and Brighten Beach in the English countryside.
As part of the application process, Maus had to pass a series of tests including practical skills, art history, chemistry and physics as well as a psychological test to ensure students are ready for the grueling coursework.
Once accepted, Maus spent a year learning alongside others honing their skills as craftsmen in areas from clocks to tapestries. West End College is wellrenowned, so students are recruited with offers from around the world.
Maus knew she wanted to go to New York, accepted a job there and worked in a studio for three years before going out on her own in 2000.
Since then, Maus has offered two services for her clients: She will bring pieces from her clients’ collections to her studio and work on them there, or she will go to them—a niche market that Maus has found to be highly sought after.
Maus inspects each piece of furniture to see if the joints and structure are in good condition. If the piece has veneer to be repaired, she can tell by the sound produced when tapping her fingers if the thin pieces of wood are lose and in need of glue. She checks finishes and hardware, waxes pieces and will also train staff to properly care for antiques.
Locally, Maus cares for collections at the Birmingham Museum of Art as well as a few private collectors. Some of her clients have large collections while others ask for her help with a few select pieces.
“The fun part of every piece is basically bringing every piece back to life. That’s the reward of doing restoration,” Maus says. “There’s never a collection that’s too small.
The piece may not be museum quality but it is an antique. If we don’t take care of these pieces, our great-grandchildren will never have the amount of antiques we have these days.”
