ALL SEWN UP Somewhere in the woods around Baldwin, Wisconsin, there is a small, one-room schoolhouse in which the Fabric Appliance Company does business and its creator, a friend of ours by the name of Kurt Buetow, homesteads. Kurt makes chairs. Wonderfully comfortable, hanging chairs of canvas carefully cut to fit the body. The fact that Kurt's chair won first prize in the first annual Canvas Furniture Design Competition held in Tokyo in 1974 has helped business quite a bit, but then that has its bad points too. "When I get away from the whole deal and pretend that I'm a politician or an economist, then I think it's wonderful to produce a 'product.' But mostly I feel a void when the basis for my contact with people is money." Far from wanting to protect or patent the design of his now famous chairs, Kurt would like to see it "spread around," but he hasn't yet stumbled onto the proper vehicle. We were trying to figure out a ·way of setting up a technologically appropriate method of producing the chair, perhaps modeled after the system of the Nomadic Tipi Makers on the Oregon coast. They contract out tipi sewing to local farmers' wives who use the orders as collateral for buying their own industrial sewing machines; they can then apply their equipment and skills to other local productions. Instead of having to finance and operate a factory, there would be a network of self-reliance, skilled and equipped small businesses which could serve local needs. Kurt does have some help these days on the sewing and production work, on which he spends ten to fifteen hours per week to gain a cashflow. Otherwise he enjoys spending his time gardening and designing new things like shirts, pants, shoes, raincoats, kites, water containers and hyperbolic canopies. When last heard from, he was perfecting a hanging bathtub made with canvas treated with vinyl and glue. Kurt likes to do consulting and custom design and is planning to sell his chairs in kit and plan form for people to assemble at home. The hanging chairs come in royal blue, red, yellow, brown, black, kelly or forest green, turquoise and white, and sell for $42 retail, $30 when ordered directly from the company or from his West Coast distributor, Huey Johnson, or $24 without the dowels. He also makes a tete-a-tete (two facing chairs) for $50, and a four-person set for $120. They are attractive, durable and extremely comfortable. If you are interested in sewing or selling the chairs, or just in ordering one or two, contact: Huey Johnson, Webworks, 35 Elm, Mill Valley, CA 94941, or The Fabric Appliance Co., Rt. 1, Box 150 A, B~ldwin, WI 54002. -Lauri deMoll
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