Happy New Year, and welcome to our first newsletter!
We're coming close to our first year as Storyboard Furniture! In the past year we've met many exciting milestones, with our efforts fuelled by our vision of telling stories through furniture, love for the work and your ongoing support.
An eclectic array of markets, festivals and shows have been home to our displays this year, allowing us to foster many connections and welcome new communities into our story. From the wide open skies at Meadow Fest in Bradford to Toronto’s own Queen West Holiday Pop Up Market, people near and far have shown interest and excitement about Storyboard’s vision.
We are still filled with gratitude and energy from the success of our Apple Wood Salvage Initiative and Indiegogo Campaign, through which we were able to raise almost $20,000 to help us buy equipment. Our salvage of roughly 200 apple trees at the Big'r Apple Farm on Heritage Road in Huttonville, ON caught the attention of The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, The Brampton Guardian and CityLine. The hundreds of platters and kitchen ware yielded have now made their way to homes all over Canada, the US and Europe. You can now pick one up at stores such as Karma Co-op, the West End Food Co-op and Even and Odd or on Etsy. We continue to get people dropping by our studio to tell us their stories of picking apples in the Ferri orchards over the years.
An unexpected surprise took shape as several opportunities to incorporate public speaking as part of our work came up. Each time we have received positive feedback often leading us to another exciting engagement.
An unexpected surprise took shape as several opportunities to incorporate public speaking as part of our work came up. Each time we have received positive feedback often leading us to another exciting engagement.
In the Spring, we shared about our work and gave an Alaskan chainsaw mill demonstration to the Annesley Woodworkers Collective near Markdale. From that followed a summer partnership with LEAF and Karmatree to present the Salvaging Urban Wood Tree Tour in the Junction. We finished our speaking engagements for the year with the highlight of being asked to be one of the keynote speakers at the Urban Wood Utilization Forum at City Hall hosted by the Greater Toronto Chapter of The Canada Green Building Council. Dennis made an inspiring call for culture that you can read on our blog here. We were also invited as an industry leader to participate in the Urban Wood Industry Round table put on by LEAF and the City of Toronto's Economic Development & Culture office
Our Tree to Table custom furniture continues to be at the heart of Storyboard. As news of our unique process travels, we receive ever more orders for loved fallen trees and the memories they hold to be preserved through the process of being crafted into beautiful furniture. As we reflect on the amount of groundwork we have done in the past year, we look forward to dedicating more of our energy and time to this important work.
Our Tree to Table custom furniture continues to be at the heart of Storyboard. As news of our unique process travels, we receive ever more orders for loved fallen trees and the memories they hold to be preserved through the process of being crafted into beautiful furniture. As we reflect on the amount of groundwork we have done in the past year, we look forward to dedicating more of our energy and time to this important work.
We also hope to continue to nurture out partnerships and investments in local culture as these inform our company profoundly. This year we are going to be working with Mabelle Arts as part of their ongoing park transformation project. It involves artists, architects, gardeners and builders to work with Mabelle residents to re-imagine, transform and animate the Mabelle Park, located in the heart of the Mabelle neighbourhood in Etobicoke. We are excited to see how our work can be used to help with such an important community endeavour for change. Exploring other partnerships with organizations such as LEAF and Not Far From the Tree, businesses such as House Proud Signs and tree care professionals such as Karmatree means we are helping to contribute to a sustainable urban forest.
We will be at the International Design Show for the first time this year where we will be partnering with Nelson and Garrett to launch an exciting new pendant lamp. Use promo code: EX14IDS to get discounted tickets online for and come see us at the show and opening night party! Stay tuned to our Twitter account for pictures of the event.
Thank you for believing in us and our work, for telling your friends, and for bringing a piece of salvaged and crafted wood home. We invite you to stay connected with Storyboard Furniture, and plan on sharing about our progress in newsletters like this seasonally.
All the best for 2014 to you and yours.
Sincerely,
Dennis & Mike
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