Couple designs furnishings, jewelry for Starving Artist Expo set for Saturday

Reposted from the Rome News Tribune. Article by Carolyn Grindrod. Link to article here.

Gorg Hubenthal with a turned wood goblet

He makes, reproduces and restores handcrafted furniture and cabinetry from the finest woods around. She uses her creative side to make colorful beaded jewelry and accessories with semi-precious stones and metals.

Together, the married duo of 14 years, Georg and Mindy Hubenthal of Rome, have proven that art should not just be beautiful, but should be equally as functional.

That’s why the Hubenthals have teamed up and followed their hearts to ultimately create their two-year-old homegrown business — The Hook and Hammer.
The couple will display their work at this year’s Starving Artist Expo, alongside 25 other artists. Saturday’s third annual art show and sale will be from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at its new venue downtown in the Seven Hills Building, 538 Broad St.

From Windsor-style chairs to ornate secretary desks and coffee tables, Georg Hubenthal can make it all.

“Anything wood, really,” laughed Georg. “If I can dream it, I can build it.”

Many of his pieces have been fashioned from poplar, cherry, oak and mahogany he cuts himself in his hobby shop and then pieced together.

All of his designs are hand-created all the way down to the smallest details — every handspun spindle and carved joint. His art borrows from a “simpler” time in history.

Hubenthal said that although fine woodworking is a dying art, there is still buyers’ market for those who have a real appreciation and love for handmade furnishings.

“I had a client tell me that they were going to go IKEA to buy their cabinets,” he added. “They said they were going to spend about $3,000 to redo their kitchen and it would have to be installed. I told them I could build and install the cabinets out of better materials for less than that. People think that if they go to IKEA that they are getting it cheaper. It isn’t cheaper. It’s just cheaply made.”

Georg Hubenthal said there is other perks to buying locally from a craftsman, like restoration, repairs and maintenance.

“If something breaks, you can get it fixed,” he added.

Some of his favorite pieces over the years include a custom Victorian-style dog kennel.

“Martha Shaw had this beautiful Victorian bedroom set, and wanted to replace the plastic dog kennel that she was using,” he added. “So we made Bonny a matching kennel for the bedroom set.”

Mindy Hubenthal

And as Georg focuses on the hardiness of the business, Mindy’s work touches on the softer side.

When she’s not home-schooling their seven children, she can be found enjoying the sunshine in their Black’s Bluff Road home’s sunroom with a crochet hook in hand, working on pieces of jewelry, scarves, shawls and purses.

Mindy Hubenthal said she first learned to knit and crochet from her mother and grandmothers.

“But the 80s didn’t have a lot of patterns for stuff I would have wanted to wear,” she laughed.

She picked up crocheting again while pregnant, but said when it came to selling her products, there wasn’t much of a demand for old-style lace dollies.

But her love for the old lace patterns, like ones she has found from Russian and the Ukraine, inspired her jewelry designs.

“I see a shape I like or how something flows, and then basically write my own pattern,” said Mindy.