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.
Upcoming potential festivals and events for 2021:
The Annual Elkhart Lake Farmer's/Artisan Market starts at the end of May through early October, and is held every Saturday morning from 8:30am to 12:30pm. It is located near the historic downtown train depot. I'm located on the northeast section of the parking lot, with a white canopy. It's a great visible location. 2020 turned out to be very good, despite the fact that tourism in Elkhart was down. We relied heavily on wearing masks, using sanitation stations and common sense.
The Bergstrom/Mahler Art Festival held in Neenah, WI., at the Riverside Park should be held on the 3rd Sunday of July. 2020 was ancelled due to COVID19.
The Art at the Park Festival held in Appleton, WI., at the City Park, just north of Lawrence University, is usually held on the last Sunday of July. 2020 was also cancelled due to COVID19.
Mosaic Art Street in Green Bay is held over the last weekend of August. This year was cancelled as well, due to COVID19, however; as a result of the effort made by their director, a one day "ROAD SHOW" was set up instead on the last Sunday of August. It involved 15 or so selected sites around the city where artists could display and sell their artwork. It turned out to be an excellent idea. The public was offered a location map and a brief summary. Sanitation stations were set up at the locations and everyone adhered to the CDC guidelines from there. This was very well received by the public.
The Kohler Wine and Food Event in Kohler, WI., is an annual event held in mid-October of each year. Given the nature that the pandemic was still a major problem, the event was cancelled as well. Hopefully, the tradition will carry into future years.
Every application to an art festival, requires high grade photos of one's work and a jurying process to select those vendors who best represent provide the quality of art for that event. 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. I know the challenges surrounding this pandemic will remain for months to come, yet at the same, we're all hoping the COVID19 will lessen it's grasp on the public and we can all go about enjoying socializing again. ************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
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