Strub's Woodcrib: Quality, precision, elegance
At Strub's Woodcrib, we only work with the finest of materials like premium grade Moso Bamboo, regarded as one of the hardest of the 14-1500 varieties of bamboo. Our staple product is our endgrain bamboo cutting boards, featuring non-marring, skid resistance silicone rubber feet and high grade stainless steel legs to accent today's kitchens. Our cutting boards and serving trays are assembled using food safe glues and finished and burnished with a combination of carnauba wax, food safe mineral oil, and bees wax. We believe that our cutting boards and serving trays are the best in the industry. The end grained bamboo cutting boards are super hard, making them one of the best surfaces designed to be cut on, while not tending to dull knives. Not only is Bamboo naturally antimicrobial, but it's also environmentally sustainable and virtually all of the bamboo harvested, is either used in processing or in usable final products, leaving no carbon footprint. Young moso bamboo shoots and leaves are considered a culinary delicacy for humans, but Panda Bears don't care for them and therefore, this bamboo is not in their diet. Bamboo is harvested by hand and each culm is carried out of the forest on foot to maintain the delicate root systems of the forest floor. The manufacturing facilities are located within a day’s drive of the forest in order to cultivate close relationships with the family farmers who grow and harvest the bamboo, as well as to ensure access to the highest quality raw materials. Bamboo has greater compressive strength than concrete and about the same strength-to-weight ratio as steel in tension. But it doesn't start out that way. Like all bamboo, each culm grows rapidly from a rhizome. Moso has been known to grow 47 inches in 24 hours, but it generally reaches its maximum height of 80 feet within just two months. After that, growth occurs within the stalk. The walls of the hollow culm thicken inward as chlorophyll, sugar and organic material are changed into dense, fibrous cellulose. It is these reinforced but lightweight internodes that provide tremendous strength with flexibility along the entire length of the bamboo culm. One-year-old culms are still soft and can be used to make fine calligraphy paper. At four years of age, fiber development in the culm is more appropriate for pulp and paper manufacturing than bamboo flooring. To achieve the characteristics valued in construction material, it must be harvested at the right time, between 5-1/2 and 6 years. Because bamboo is so good at capturing carbon from the atmosphere and sequestering it within the stalk and root system, all of the bamboo that we purchase, is carbon-negative at the time of manufacture. Bamboo’s leafy canopy sequesters carbon and releases ~35 percent more oxygen than a comparable cluster of hardwood trees; in the renewing process, the plant takes the carbon from the air and holds it within its culm and root system.
The cutting boards are the cornerstone of my business and they're all about MOSO Bamboo, however; Strub's Woodcrib is not just all about Bamboo, we're also about exotic woods (harvested from managed forests) and how one can integrate these into contemporary art. I've had over 20 years of experience in working with exotic woods and have come to fully appreciate the enormous variations, complexities and beauty that they have. Notably, over the years, I've also been able to explore other venues in which I can present the exotic woods in functional yet artistic craft. You'll see evidence of this in my Mantel Clock collection, serving trays, trivets, turnings, and wall art. Last year I discovered liquid resins with mineral inlays and began creating a whole new look into some of my works of art. This year, I have featured some of these resin inlays in my spalted art. They've been very well received. In addition, I've begun to work with analyne dyes and metal oxidized patinas and have incorporated them into my collection. The newly added elements of dyes, inlays and metal patinas, have unleashed a whole new breath of artistic freedom which has challenged my creativity as well as providing a new purpose and passion. This is an exciting era, in which technology has begun to embrace art, by providing new techniques and products for artistic expression. I hope you'll have a chance to visit me at one of the shows coming up and see some of these amazing collections. Thank you so much for your business and trust.
Events for 2020:
The Elkhart Lake Farmer's/Artisan Market will run this year from early June to early October, every Saturday morning 8:30am to 12:30, and is held near the historic downtown train depot. This year I elected to move to the parking lot and set up my canopy. It's become a great visable location, so thank you to Jan Drees for her assistance and locating this spot. It's been a very successful summer. I'll be there on Sept. 5th and Sept 12th, after which my season at the EL market will be over.
The Bergstrom/Mahler Art Festival held in Neenah, WI., at the Riverside Park was to be held in July - however; event was cancelled due to COVID19
The Art at the Park Festival held in Appleton, WI., at the City Park, just north of Lawrence University, was to be held -- however; event was cancelled due to COVID19
The one day event on Sat. Aug 29th, 2020 was very successful. Perfect weather and the public was enthused to come out and mix. Social distancing and masks were worn, but the atmosphere was super friendly and engaging. Thank you to Mosaic Art and Silvija Jensen for coordinating this successful event and thank you also to Barbarba Mann, for allowing myself and 5 other vendors to use her drive and yard for our displays and setup.
The Kohler Wine and Food Event in Kohler, WI., is an annual event held in October of each year, however; in light of the pandemic, this may also be cancelled, so stay tuned. My booth is usually located at the Design Center, which features Kohler's latest kitchen/bathroom fixtures, plumbingware and accessories. We will await updates from Kohler. No further word has been mentioned, so still awaiting a final notice.
Application to art festivals require high grade photos of one's work and a jurying process. This can be challenging at times and usually applications begin as early as December and typically go through February or March for the summer's art festivals. Notification of acceptance into these art festivals usually occurs in April and May. As time went on this year, one by one, the art festivals decided to cancel their event, due the persistance of the COVID19. The Elkhart Lake Farmer's/Artisan market remained on schedule, largely because the Elkhart Lake Chamber of Commerce took action to reduce the amount of vendors and those that remained were asked to spread out. They also created traffic flow charts, set up hand sanitation stations and recommended the use of face masks.
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