DEPARTMENTS

Market Makers
By Emily Van Cleve


JC Iron and Stone

Open sesame
Don’t talk about wood with Joe Craig Doyle—metal is this artisan’s medium. Doyle worked in the steel industry in New Mexico for 17 years before leaving his 8-to-5 job for a more creative calling. Today he fashions gates, vigas, trusses, columns, and doors out of iron, steel, copper, brass, and bronze.

“I started out by making metal lizards and hummingbirds,” Doyle recalls. These pieces are still for sale in Albuquerque’s Historic Old Town district. Doyle says he continues to incorporate animal and natural imagery into his iron and steel work through his business, JC Iron and Stone.

Joe Craig Doyle dba JC Iron and Stone, 7421 Reading Ave. S.E., Albuquerque, NM 87105, (505) 873-2611, www.jcironandstone.com

Jognny's Fabco

Second nature
Welding is second nature to John MacArthur. When he left the oil fields of southern New Mexico for the northern New Mexico beauty of Taos more than 35 years ago, he put a new twist on his old skill. Making wrought-iron home items for area contractors grew into Johnny’s Fabco, MacArthur’s machining and metal fabrication business.

The business provides a variety of welding services as well as custom wrought-iron work. MacArthur and his associate, Pat Morton, create wrought-iron fireplace screens, chandeliers, metal doors, gates, and railings, as well as smaller home items such as curtain rods, towel bars, and bathroom hardware. “My forte is engineering and producing work according to an artist’s or a contractor’s plans,” MacArthur says.

Johnny’s Fabco, 362 Espinosa Road, Ranchos de Taos, NM 87557, (505) 758-8366

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John Bauer

Move over, pine
Make room for goncalo alvez and verawood, two of the exotic hardwoods furniture maker John Bauer uses to hand craft elaborately designed chairs, tables, benches, and mirror frames. Goncalo alvez is a striped tropical wood from Brazil and Central America; verawood, a greenish-colored tropical wood found in Colombia and Venezuela.

“I initially got involved with woodworking through carving wooden sculptures,” explains Bauer. “When I inherited $10,000, I invested the money in woodworking tools. The first chair I made sold quickly. I knew this was the right direction for my work.”

The unusual woods are suitable materials for Bauer’s equally unusual designs, inspired by Celtic images and designs from the American Southwest and Northwest. Additionally, the woodworker welcomes custom orders—a recent request involved carving cartoon characters onto a set of chairs.

John Bauer, Santa Fe, N.M., (505) 982-4399, www.johnbauerfurniture.com. Studio visits by appointment.


Milestone

Miles ahead
The Colosseum may be crumbling, but many ancient Roman and Egyptian roads still exist today. That’s because they were paved with porphyry, a durable volcanic rock today imported from central Mexico.

Miles Chaffee of Milestone Imports, the North American distributor of porphyry, says porphyry is becoming a popular choice in the Santa Fe marketplace for driveways, patios, and interior floor covering. Residential and commercial clients enjoy the stone’s many benefits: It does not absorb water, dries off quickly, and is naturally slip-resistant.

Chaffee says his clients choose porphyry not just for its durability but also for its beauty and “Old World charm.” Santa Fe’s venerable St. Francis Cathedral, for example, now boasts a 36-foot porphyry labyrinth modeled after the famed 800-year-old labyrinth in Chartres Cathedral in France.

Milestone Imports, 1000 Cordova Place,
Santa Fe, NM 87505, (505) 989-1999 or
1-866-641-1999, www.milestoneimports.com

Copyright 2003 Hacienda Press