Local craftsman Paul Czamanske preserves woodworking traditions

By Corin Blust
Sun contributor
In a world of mass production, Paul Czamanske, owner and craftsman at Underbark New Mission Furniture in Maple City, prides himself on the unique and lasting design of his work. His beautifully created furniture is something that he knows will be appreciated and loved by generations to come.
“When I was a child, my parents would spend their weekends collecting antique furniture, and some of it would be 300 years old. I was really impressed by the fact that this furniture had survived. I’m sure that the children and grandchildren of my clients will be desiring my furniture, if not fighting over it,” said Czamanske. “When I make a piece, I stand at the bench wondering what the piece will be doing 100 years from now, even 200 years from now.”

Czamanske has always loved building things. He spent his childhood making so many forts from salvaged building scraps in the Detroit area that a construction crew complained to the police about his scavenging.
When Czamanske was in the seventh grade his family relocated to Germany. There, he took every industrial arts class he could, and his mother would take him on trips to castles and museums all over Europe.
“We would travel throughout Europe and visit all these castles. Looking back, I can see that the overbuilt, sometimes simply designed tables I would see [there] really influenced me a lot,” said Czamanske.
He attended the London College of Furniture, earning his Furniture Craftsman’s Certificate before moving back to the states in his early twenties.
“When I came back to the U.S., I was pretty disenchanted with what I found [after being in Europe for so long]. I did some art fairs in California, then in 1976 I moved here,” said Czamanske.
After becoming a single parent, Czamanske had a strong desire to become his own boss so that he could have more freedom with his schedule and more time for his son. He founded his DBA, Underbark, in 1981.
“I chose the name from a book of poetry by Max Ellison, who was the originator of the Stone Circle Poets, by Yuba, near Elk Rapids” said Czamanske.
His style, which he calls New Mission, originated out of a wide variety of influences: “If we had a blender, I would throw in the arts and crafts movement, throw in the kind of overbuilt style of well-made German castle furniture [that I was exposed to as a child], and the sleek, Danish modern style of furniture that was simultaneously influencing [me in Europe], add a tablespoon of oriental, and we get this new style of Mission,” said Czamanske.
Czamanske takes a unique approach to hand-made furniture, focusing on developing a line of well-designed and functional pieces rather than “reinventing the wheel” every time a client orders a piece. In this way, his clients can easily have a cohesive theme in their living room. He started the line by creating a chair.
“I knew that a lot of furniture makers would avoid chair-building, tell people ‘find a chair, I’ll match the table, etc. So I took the idea of making chairs as kind of a challenge,” he said. “In 1984 I developed the New Mission High-Backed Dining Chair, the oldest design that I have in my line. I would use the seating, tweak it, see how it felt, stand back, look at it from every angle, decide what needed to be thicker, lesser, higher, or lower.”
Czamanske engineers every piece carefully, allowing room for the wood to expand and contract with the seasons, one challenging design problem that has led the mass-produced furniture world to shy away from the quality of solid wood.
“I use almost no veneer in my work, so it’s solid wood. There are seven pieces of wood in [a dining table top]. When I buy the wood I probably handle six pieces of wood for every piece that makes it into my truck, and then when it’s in the shop I spend a lot of time sorting through how the grain’s going to look, how it’s going to go together,” he said.
The product of Czamanske’s careful planning is a quality piece of furniture that will last for generations.
“When this furniture sits in your house, it’s going to infuse soul and a sense of something enduring. It’s not a product of our technical freak-out world, it maintains something of a familiar past,” said Czamanske. “I call it real furniture, and I guess that’s what I like, maintaining that realness as an option for people to furnish their homes, feel comfortable. In my mind, I want everyone to be comfy, to have a nice chair and lamp to read by and feel peaceful.”
Czamanske maintains a gallery above his workshop near the Glen Lake Schools, where some of Carol Spaulding’s “old favorites” also hang. He operates mostly by appointment, but just give him a quick phone call at (231) 334-3573 if you plan to stop by. His furniture can also be seen at the upcoming Northwest Michigan College art fair on July 29, the Suttons Bay Art Festival on August 5-6, and the Alden art fair during the last weekend in August. His New Mission furniture can also be seen at his website, www.underbarkfurniture.com.