Stissing Design — A Diamond in the Rough

When Joan told me to go check out Stissing Design in Pine Plains, NY, my first challenge was to find it.  But find it, I did!

Nestled back off the main road just beyond the Showroom & Design Center for Antique and Vintage Woods of America (if you’re headed west on Rt. 199) I found one of the most authentic and unpretentious artisans I have ever encountered.

Upon first meeting, Tim Jones looks like he belongs on a Harley or on horseback but after talking to him for just a few minutes I learned this seventh-generation blacksmith is an artist, a welder, a designer, a nature photographer and an environmentalist …he’s what I would call a modern day Renaissance man.

I told him Joan had sent me over to meet him and get a few photographs.  Joan had known of Tim’s work for many years and has, in fact, referred many Hammertown customers to him.  When she started thinking about the kind of look she wanted in her new business venture, 7 Dutchess, she just knew Tim’s zinc and steel pieces would really pull everything together stylistically.  Drop in at 7 Dutchess to see some of these wonderful Stissing Design pieces –including the steel end tables pictured here, as well as an incredible espresso bar!

When thinking of blacksmithing, one usually conjures up solid but rough and unsophisticated design work.  Well, that just “ain’t” so at Stissing Design.  This is custom metalsmithing and Tim’s creations are clever and detailed as well as beautiful and functional.  Large pieces of scrap metal and old discarded tools often provide inspiration for his work as well as his natural surroundings.

“I for the most part, feel it’s impossible and perhaps even arrogant, to try to replicate nature.  That being confessed, there is still a desire in me to forge and surround myself with organic forms.  I also love the fact that to a good metal artist, the metal is like clay that can be reconfigured time and time again.  This is the reason blacksmiths were some of the first true recyclers, and in this world of so much waste, that at least brings a small smile.”

Though Tim is a seventh-generation blacksmith (and he uses the “worn and experienced tools” passed down to him) he told me he didn’t actually learn the farrier trade from his father or grandfather.  He had a welding degree and a lot of mechanical and design experience and later discovered “the urge to hammer metal was in [my] blood”.  Read more about Tim’s background here.

I stayed at Tim’s shop for quite awhile visiting with him and looking at his photographs of insects and flowers…they were incredibly detailed.  When I drove away I realized I was leaving Stissing Design in a different head than when I arrived.  It was truly a surprising and unexpected pleasure!

For directions and more information about Stissing Design visit their website at:

http://www.stissingdesign.com/index.html