The Owl – a successful design that came out of a desire to create an affordable alternative in tough economic times. photo courtesy Geoffrey Warner.

Stonington’s Geoffrey Warner says that after thirty years as a furniture designer he is finally “figuring it out.” Just what is “it” that he is mastering? It’s the age-old question that all artists and crafts people face: how to make a living, while staying true to your artistic ideals.

As the economy took a turn for the worse in 2008, Warner was faced with the dilemma of how to make ends meet. “People were nervous,” he says.“Including me. Where was work going to come from? How would I pay the bills?”

He says people were forced by that economy to start thinking differently. One of the ways he did this was to invite local artists, designers, and crafts people to attend monthly out-of-the-box think tank meetings in his studio.

As a result of those meetings – and his focus on a new philosophy – Warner met with Stuart Kestenbaum, the director of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and asked him to loosely mentor him.

“We talked about a balance of ecology, community, and economy (ECE) being present in any visions going forward,” he says. “I started researching other community-based foundations… and was inspired to spread my beliefs to other artists and crafts people.”

The out-of-the-box meetings were well-attended and dialogs and discussions went in new and unexpected directions. Counting on change and letting go of expectations became a new theme in his thinking.

He says a clarity was growing within him that had a deeper meaning, and surpassed the need for making a livelihood from mostly designing and building high-end furniture.

“Honoring the triad (ECE), designing and building a line of furniture that my neighbors, friends and peers could afford” has become a new part of his business.

He created the Owl, a line of stools that sell for about 1/10 of what his popular Stonington continuous arm chair sells for, and now is offering a low- to mid-range priced Owl chair. Additionally, a simple line of live edged tables was designed.

“The Owl Stool came about as a result of my search for ways to produce furniture that is affordable for more people while retaining the feeling of fine craftsmanship and emphasizing the natural beauty of wood.”

In the spring of 2009, on a shoestring budget he began local and regional advertising, and over that summer attended two trade shows: the Blue Hill Craft Show and Maine Home Boat and Harbor Show.

“I also took the stools to our local farmers market in Stonington,” he says, which helped to steer customers to his gallery on the other side of town.

By fall, he had sold over 30 of the stools, and people were signing up to attend Owl classes, where they learn how to construct and finish an Owl stool from the kits that Warner offers.

Warner showed The Owl to Dr. Michael Aker, a local chiropractor, for some feedback on how it interacted with the human body.