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Showing posts from June, 2018

Loyalty, from both sides. Meet Angelika who worked with us for twenty five years.

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Loyalty, from both sides.  Meet Angelika who worked with us for twenty five years. Meet Angelica, who came to work for us from 1992 till 2017. She has an artists eye for detail and managed around 20 employees in our hand painted finishes. Angelica is kind and steadfast with her staff and tries to be easy on me. I know who I really work for....  She works with me on over 62 finishes! Many of these finishes require up to 7 layers of paint with a long dry time in between. Many designers are surprised to learn we really ARE made in USA. Not just assembled or designed in the USA. We actually hand finish each piece.  Angelica has learned ancient techniques I brought from Florence for layering primer paints, base colors, bottom brushwork color, top brushwork color, clear sealer coat. These layers and brushwork add depth and a unique hand painted finish to each piece. She is an artist with a very critical eye. Angelica is a great reason for made in USA! She is kind, loyal, h

Bio Resins, Hand Cast and Eco Responsible

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We have huge fun here at ADR! We are one of the last facilties to actually "Hand Cast" in the USA. These type of artisal jobs all moved to Asia in the 50's and then to China permanently by the end of the recession. Even with less expensive labor in Asia, the art of hand casting has been lost to the machine injection molding companies. However here at ADR we can bring in an architectural antique in the morning. Make a plaster mold and a slip mold and by the end of the next business day our finished mold will capture the dust and peeling paint detail from the original for dozens and dozens of exact copies. Of course we have also made some odd additional casts; a few faces, Robert's Jobu statue for his baseball good fortune, ancient acanthus leaves for hair ornaments, architectural details for molding or cornices. Many years ago I started our "BIP" program: "Boycott If Possible" against petrochemical plastics.We had worked to develop speciali

My top 11 suggestions to save the planet!

            My top 11 suggestions to save the planet!  1. Boycott coal power which is 54 0/0 of US air pollution, buy  wind or solar energy  for your home and business. 2. Drive  an electric car  (or no car!) and recharge it with wind or solar energy sources. 3. Boycott  petro plastic bottled water , bottled beverages - use aluminum or glass instead! 4. Boycott petro plastic in foods, styrofoam, plastic straws, plastic bags and businesses that use them. These plastics cause ground water toxins in local dumps when plastics phytodegrade and become tiny particles of  carcinogens . Petro plastics affect seafood with plastics in the  great pacific garbage dumps  and other gyros building around the planet. 5. Boycott non-organic foods. Buy only  organic food . Think about it: if pesticides kills a small bug, eventually the cumulative effect will kill the biggest bugs and humans! 6. Donate to the  NRDC National Resources Defence Council , who scores more big wins for the USA than

Do you know where the wood in your rod comes from...?

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Do you know where the wood in your rod comes from... Whitney Anna DOES know where the wood in your drapery rod comes from. NO, I have not been drinking and this is not a viagra ad. As the CEO and owner for 25 years of The Antique Drapery Rod Company I sourced wood for drapery rods for many years. Have you seen where wood from China comes from? Have you seen the clear cut forests of Madagascar and South America and even the United States? The destruction of uncontrolled  deforestation is horrific. Destruction of plants, animals, insects, biodiversity. Would you much rather being involved with wood grown in a sustainable , eco system that supports bio diversity? A system that cleans the air and provides a home for birds, bees and all the microorganisms that build a healthy planet. Welcome to our world! This is an AMERICAN SUSTAINABLE FOREST! This is where my wood comes from. This is happiness and home for animals, birds, bees. This is the product that I choose to put