Furniture

Hundreds of computers, monitors, pieces of office furniture and digital design tools were auctioned Tuesday in Timonium to raise money for creditors of defunct Big Huge Games and its Rhode Island parent company, 38 Studios LLC. Traces of a one-time creative environment remained on the fifth floor of a Timonium office building as people bid on hundreds of video games, game consoles, pingpong and pool tables, and stereo and audio equipment. "This was a great place to work," quipped Matt Greenberg, a Baltimore County resident who was looking to buy furniture.

As a young girl visiting her grandmother's cabin on the Delaware River in the 1960s, Elizabeth Clarke-Shaw fashioned necklaces from acorns, crafted fairy gardens on old aluminum pie plates, and collected rocks in the time-honored tradition of adventurous children everywhere. “Nature really sang to me,” says the longtime Columbia resident. That persistent melody inspired Clarke-Shaw, now 57, to create one-of-a-kind furniture pieces that sprout branches in all their pristine glory as they pay homage to those halcyon days of innocence and imagination.

When Katie Byram and her family moved to a 1920s farmhouse in Baltimore County, they were charmed by its old-fashioned wraparound porch. Only one thing would make it even better: a porch swing. "I knew our kids would enjoy it," said Byram, who tapped interior designer Katherine Crosby to sketch plans for a "bohemian" seating area. They envisioned teak furniture from Thailand, outdoor rugs, potted plants — and a dark wooden swing. While the project is still in the early stages, Byram is already dreaming of relaxing in the swing as it sways in the summer breeze.

When he wanted to get the attention of his scuba class, Ed Kidera would bang on a full air tank that he used for instruction. His students would instantly redirect their eyes toward him, drawn back to reality by the beautiful tone emanating from the heavy steel cylinder. The tank's special sound wasn't lost on Kidera, either, as he immediately recognized its potential as kinetic art. That moment of serendipity more than 20 years ago changed the direction of his life. Kidera, who has a master's degree in ocean engineering and was a self-employed consultant at the time he was giving scuba lessons part time, began experimenting with making bells from various types of tanks shortly after his chance discovery.

When Kevin Luskin decided to fill a vast, long-vacant spot in a shopping center he owns in Towson, he envisioned a "category killer" store that would specialize in sofas and other seating - a store that would defy customers to leave without finding what they wanted. Luskin and his brother, Cary, opened the Sofa Store in April in a retail center that was once the site of a Luskins, the now-defunct TV and appliance chain founded by their father, Jack Luskin, who is now retired.

Haverty Furniture Cos. Inc.is expanding in Maryland and opening a new furniture showroom in Towson next week. Havertys will open Thursday, June 28 at Towson Place in the former Filene's Basementspot. It is the fourth in Maryland and the seventh in the larger Baltimore/Washington region, with stores in Columbia, Rockville and Bowie. The more than 100-year-old Atlanta-based chain now runs more than 100 furniture stores in 17 states, featuring its own brand of Havertys Collections.

Yesterday's post, "A future for copy editors," in which I expanded on some advice to the trade by Steve Buttry, has attracted several comments, but you probably don't know that. Because of defects in the blogware, the counter on the post registers zero comments. But some of them, particularly those by Picky and Brian Throckmorton, are quite astute and valuable, so I am republishing them here.   johnwcowan What kind of bar can you open on severance packages which amount to the total of your as-yet-unclaimed vacation days for the year?

If you take a peek into furniture maker Bill Hergenroeder's shop in Cockeysville, you may be surprised at what you don't see: no computer-assisted drawings or other high-tech design aids. He prefers the simple life. The concrete floor of his shop is splattered with old splotches of paint. Stacks of hand-drawn sketches, veneer outlines, screwdrivers and the occasional power drill are scattered around the small space, with just enough room for him to move about to work on his custom furniture creations.

Founder and lead designer: Mark Melonas, whose nickname was Luke, has a design and sculpture degree from the University of Maryland and a master's in furniture artisanry from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. But he began working in the basement of his family's Howard County home, making furniture with his father. He cast his first custom-designed sink in the kitchen of his Bolton Hill apartment 10 years ago. Today, the company he founded specializes in custom concrete and wood products.

In July 2010, Adarien Jackson's 6-year-old son, Kaden, began complaining of itchy bumps on his ankles. They soon turned into a rash and spread to his back, behind his ear, and on his eyelid. The child's pediatrician and dermatologists tried allergy drugs, diet changes, oils and oatmeal baths. But it wasn't until months later that Jackson discovered the cause of the problem. Kaden's twin brother, Kyler, began waking in the middle of the night, crying out, "Bugs are crawling on me!"