Gauthier Furniture

It was a great honor to welcome our sister city students and teachers from Domažlice Czech Republic to the workshop this week. What a great feeling it is to have the opportunity to inspire these young minds! The photo taken standing behind the “80th Anniversary of Liberation” Bronze medallions that and I created together to celebrate and pay tribute to these great people and the 80th anniversary of their countries liberation during WW2 by Two Rivers very own Matt Konop, the .hero who bravely led the 2nd infantry division back to his parents homeland in 1945.

I present you the “Block Table”. Made from Longleaf Pine salvaged from the J.I.Case tractor factory built in the late 1800’s. Looking into the surface of this end grain table, hundreds of growth rings can be observed giving you what I believe to be a look back into time. These blocks were once part of massive thriving trees that grew only in the southern United States. The Longleaf Pine or aka Southern Steel was harvested to provide the materials that built our nations first industrial structures because of its unique strength. By 1903, 97% of the Longleaf pine forests were sawn down making this material nearly extinct. Today only 3% of the original forests remain hanging on by a thread as time passes.