High Point Spring Market

PRESS RELEASE: April 1, 2011

Clayton Oxford Designs, a premier manufacturer and designer of sustainable home furnishings, introduces the Spring 2011 Natural Slice Collection at the International Home Furnishings Market in High Point, N.C. This collection features live-edge slab tables and desks saddled on hand-melded, custom-designed metal bases. One-of-kind cocktail, console and end tables materialize from the inventive construction of reclaimed materials like acacia, mahogany and teak. Each piece is designed by nature and crafted by hand, highlighting the distinctive organic styles and natural elements in the wood grains, knots and holes from the natural root.
With the convenience of a new 19,000-square-foot warehouse in downtown Durham, NC, Clayton Oxford Designs is bringing it all back home. Forging new relationships with local

suppliers and artisans, they have increased production in North Carolina while significantly decreasing lead times, even on custom pieces.

“We’re increasing our control over the process by owning the production here in North Carolina,” says Clayton Oxford, the designer and founder. “We can make the most fantastic furniture in the world with materials right here in North Carolina in two weeks from start to finish.”

Lauren Reynolds joined our team in February 2011 as our new Director of Operations & Sales. She has breathed a fresh air of professionalism and organization into a small company of artists. With her extensive experience in event management and accounting, which she honed at New York's Bowery Presents, Lauren has built an infrastructure upon which the business can grow. Her creativity and outsider-mentality breed innovation in the furniture industry.

GREEN STORAGE! Low Impact Living Doesn't Mean Zero Storage

This large Bamboo shelving unit was designed to maximize the amount of display area while creating a variety of spaces. By making the shelving sections irregular and asymmetrical it opens up the possibilities for a less traditional display of objects. You can now fit your hand-blown vase in amongst the books and family photos next to your records and that oversized world atlas. The smooth surface is treated with an Organic Herbal Oil that is applied by hand.

Now check out Clatyon Oxford's Reclaimed Rosewood Modular Storage Cubes for storage in a green way!













Reclaimed Rosewood Modular Storage Cubes
ITEM #: CO08-114

DESCRIPTION: Rosewood strips that are left over from manufacturing facilities from the encompassing factories where the storage cube is created are gathered, and pieced together to produce the Eco friendly Recycled Rosewood Modular Storage Cubes .

Minimalist in design, the Storage Cube provides a versatility in style given the warm wood tones, and is ideal in any office or living room setting. Each Recycled Rosewood Storage Cube is unique given the high quality natural materials used.

The materials are not prefabricated, but rather designed by nature, and crafted by hand.



MEASUREMENTS: 28"w x 28"d x 28"h, each cube

Scraps Make Perrrfect!: Kitty Katson shows the Green Ox how excess makes beauty

Hello Greenies! The Green Ox here, reporting to you from the cyberPasture with Kitty Katson, a furniture store owner. Kitty is here to tell us how excess makes beauty. Hi Kitty, thanks for joining us.

Thanks for having me, Mr. Green Ox. In my store, Purrrfect Pretty re-Purposed Furniture, we look for pieces that make a functional piece of furniture from scraps or left overs. For example, with New Makers' Wild Fire Side Table, scraps of Acacia Wood are put together to create a random assortment of color. The scraps of wood are collected from surrounding detritus.



Similarly, Clayton Oxford's Recycled Rosewood Contemporary Chair takes scraps of wood from surrounding factories to piece together a beautifully designed minimalist chair.



Recycled Rosewood Occasional Dining Chair
ITEM #: CO08-078

DESCRIPTION: By collecting the byproduct or wasted rosewood pieces and strips from surrounding factories around the are where this item is manufactured, the pieces are then re-manufactured, into a proper size for this item, and finished in an eco-friendly non VOC based oil for protection and restoration of the woods natural beauty.

The Chair is pieced together by hand from scraps, making it not only a sustainable environmentally product, but at the same time, the natural beauty of the materials used make it equally aesthically pleasing.


The recycled rosewood strip occasional accent dining chair has a minimalist design to fit into a variety of home decor styles. Mixed with the contemporary look, this accent chair makes a stunning statement in any interior space.

Each Recyced Rosewood Chair is slightly unique given the high quality natrual materials used in producing this item. Designed by nature, and crafted by hand, the rich colors of the natural rosewood make for a stunning accent seating furniture design.

MEASUREMENTS:20"w x 18"d x 46"h

BAMBOOLIZED!: TV ECO-Evangelist, DAWG Barker, tells the Green Ox About the Many Uses of Bamboo!

Hello Greenies! The Green Ox here coming to you from the cyberPasture reporting on the many ways bamboo can come into our lives with Rec. DAWG Barker, TV ECO-evangelist.

Rec. DAWG Barker, will you tell our readers about who you are and what you do.

O, yes! I will Green Ox of this earth, united under one eco-system, under the Sun. I am Rec. (which I use as my title to abbREviate and acCENtuate and reGURgitate and puncTUAte that I am a recycled being of this earth), I am Rec. DAWG Barker. I bring the work of the Earth to the people through my daily devotions aired on your local public access channel, right after "This Old Pile of Dew" and before "Watch this Show and Fall Asleep."

Yes~ and what does your show focus on?

Well, it is my mission in life to attempt with the power invested in me from this great earth, to show the world and twist, or SKEW, or slightly tilt, people's perspectives in order to get a glimpse of the truth.

The truth?

The truth that this earth is a fixed sum of its parts if we keep living this throw-away mentality. It will run out just like your cookies in the cookie jar OR your toliet paper on its roll OR you clean underwear...

OK, I get the picture. So what are you going to share with our readers today?

I am going to use the Parable of Bamboo to demonstrate, to present, to show....what it means to use a sustainable material of this earth.

Well, do your thing, Rec. DAWG Barker! Praise the Earth!

To many people in the Western world, bamboo is just another exotic plant, one that’s valued more for its landscaping beauty than for the many practical uses to which it can be put. It’s different in Asia-Asians celebrate the beauty of bamboo in literature, song, and art, but they’ve also found countless diverse use for it.

Bamboo grows like weeds in many parts of Asia, and its hollow tube-like culms or stems proved to be a very useful raw material.It was integral to the development of agriculture-and by extension,civilization-in ancient China. Waterwheels made of bamboo scooped water out of rivers and dumped it into troughs and pipes made of bamboo that irrigated the rice fields. Farmers built their homes out of bamboo, penned their animals in bamboo corrals, and fed them a diet that included bamboo leaves as fodder. The farmers themselves ate meals of bamboo shoots cooked in bamboo steamers, served on bamboo plates and eaten with bamboo chopsticks.They washed down their meals with ulanzi, a sweet wine made with fermented bamboo sap, served in bamboo cups. They used it for everything.

It’s use has been spreading West slowly for more than a century, but now, with modern technology and because the plant is so fast growing and quickly renewable, many experts say

So, what is bamboo?it’s a member of the Poaceae family- the grasses-which includes the grass in your lawn, along with all the grains, such as wheat, corn and rice. And several species of bamboo make up the largest members of this family. Grasses are relatively “new” plants on Earth, not having appeared until around the time of the disappearance of the dinosaurs, about 65 million years ago. And bamboo, experts say, didn’t appear until 35 million years ago. Because of grasses ability to survive in a great variety of climates, plains, marshes, and mountains- they have become one of the most successful types of plant life on Earth.

Bamboo is found in temperature and tropical regions around the globe and is native to every continent except Antarctica and Europe.More than half of the 1,200 bamboo species are found in Asia (mostly in China) but they also exist throughout India and Southeast Asia, down to Northern Australia, all across sub-Saharan Africa and into Madagascar, and in the Americas. Like grains, which were vital to the development of civilization, bamboo spread across the globe through its close relationship to humans.

BAMBOOLIZED

Why does bamboo have so much potential for the future? Because of it’s physical qualities. It is harder than maple or oak, and has a much greater dimensional stability than either of these hardwoods (it doesn’t shrink or expand as much as wood, which explains, in part, its current popularity for flooring.) Its tensile strength-the amount of pulling force it can withstand before it breaks-is greater than steel’s, its compressive strength is comparable to concrete and its weight-to-strength ratio is greater than graphite.
Another amazing fact about bamboo: it is the fastest growing plant on Earth. Recorded growth rates have been clocked at two inches an hour. Huge shoots can attain maximum height in less than two months. Maximum height? A World record giant bamboo was found in 2003, by researchers at Yunnan University in southwestern China. The Stem was 150 feet tall, weighed 990 llbs. and was 14 inches in diameter. The rapid growth rate has obvious
economic advantages: A bamboo plantation can be harvested without killing the plant. Most
of the plant is underground. so it will just send up shoots the following year-more and progressively bigger ones.

ECO-FACT:
Growing on otherwise unsuitable or degraded land, the dense and fibrous root system of bamboo retains moisture, prevents erosion.

Thank you Rec. DAWG Barker for speaking with us today!

You are welcome and have a BLESSED GreenDAY!

Some designers just get that there is a greener way to do things

Hello Greenies! Green Ox here coming to you from the cyberPasture, reporting on desinger Clayton Oxford who gets that green design is the way of the future!

Some designers just get that there is a greener way to do things. Greener materials, smarter manufacturing, and designing for efficiency longevity are a few of these hallmarks; they're all embraced by Durham, NC- based designer and furniture manufacturer, Clayton Oxford. Take the Monkey Pod Wood Contemporary Bar stool (pictured), for example: the wood -- Monkey Pod-- is sourced from sustainable forests. His design offices are housed in the Golden Belt, a golden LEED certified building.

Clayton has an interesting take on sustainability: "We increasingly make objects that are worth less than ever before. In a one way conveyor belt, natural resources are being depleted to make objects that drift into landfill sites, piling up and often polluting...Instead of a conveyor belt system we must model our production methods on natural systems...".

We like the conveyor belt metaphor, and are glad to see he's producing objects that won't be hopping off the end of the belt any time soon. Hit the jump to see more examples of his work. via ::Design Spotter

Green Furniture: By the Numbers

Hello Greenies! The Green Ox here, coming to you from the cyberPasture reporting on Sustainable Furniture with Beaver Bob, famous for his "Just the Numbers" approach to sustainability.

Beaver Bob, how are are you today?

Well, today is a typical day, which means 80% of the time I am fair, 10% of the time I am indifferent, and the rest of the time I am basically just spaced out.

Alrighty then, let's just get to the numbers....I understand you have dissected the furniture industry and have some numbers that you would like to share with our fellow Greenies.

Yes, I do. First, let me introduce and explain the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The FSC is an independent, non-governmental, not-for-profit organization established to promote the responsible management of the world’s forests. Part of being a responsible consumer of furniture, is being responsible and aware of where your furniture is made and by what means.

Here are the numbers on the world's forests that supply our furniture industry.

• 78: Number of countries with FSC certified forests.
  
  
• 247: Number of million acres of FSC certified forests. worldwide
  
  
• 60: Number of million acres of those are located in North America.
  
  
• 11: Number of habitats at risk that FSC works to protect.
  
  
• 3 to 4: The length, in feet, some species of bamboo can grow in a day, in good soil and climate conditions.
  
  
• 100 times higher: The concentration of volatile organic compounds and particulates in indoor spaces vs. outdoors.
  
  
• 90 percent: The amount of time an average person spends indoors.
  
  
• 50 percent: Percentage of U.S. manufactured office furniture that went to Canada in 2006.
  
  
• $11.9: Billions of dollars spent on office furniture made in the U.S. in 2005.
  
  
• 300: Amount of furniture stores throughout the U.K. that provide publicly donated furniture to people in need.
  
  
• $19.99: Cost of a disposable bedside table from IKEA.
  

Thank you for your 5 minutes, Green Ox, I am going to go count some wood now.

Please visit: www.claytonoxford.com to see sustainable furniture at it's finest!

Top Green Furniture Tips

Hello Greenies! Green Ox here coming to you from the cyberPasture, with cowPatty McGee, the author of, "Green is Not Just the Color of Your Snot When You Are Sick!: Top Green Furniture Tips Everybody Should Know."

Ms. McGee, when did you realize that the grass was greener on the other side of furniture manufacturing?

Please call me cowPatty, you big GREEN Ox... well, I always knew I that something was wrong with throw-away furniture...

Ms. McGee, ahem, cowPatty, could you please define throw-away furniture to our viewers...

Why of course, Big Ole' GREEN Ox, throw-away furniture, in my opinion, are any furnishings that are produced in volume, with cheap non-durable materials. For example, people go to the store, "Pastures to Go" and buy a room of furniture that is not durable and the design is usually questionable. As a result, the furniture is neither timelessly beautiful or timelessly durable. SO - in a few years, it gets tossed...you may see it on the curb OR tossed into a ravine, alongside tires, washing machines, and car parts.

I know, why do people toss that stuff there? It always baffled me. Well, anyway, could you please enlighten our listeners with some tips on how to GO GREEN in their furniture choices.

With pleasure, you sexy big ole' GREENIE Ox!


Top Green Furniture Tips

1. Certified sustainable wood - 
Whether a piece of furniture is made from wood, cloth, metal, plastic, or whatever else, there are earth-friendly options. When cave people realized that boulders weren’t the most comfortable things to sit on, wood was almost certainly where they looked, so let's start there. The world needs more trees, not less, so practices that lead to deforestation aren't any good. Not only do trees absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, they keep the surface of the planet cool, they hold soil together so it can stay rich, and they provide the habitat that animals, insects, birds, and other plants call home, not to mention they support many people's livelihood. Simply put, don't mess with the trees. There are sustainable ways to harvest wood, however. Wood from sustainably harvested forests, sustainably harvested tree farms, and reclaimed wood are the main sources. Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and its largest forest certifier, the Rainforest Alliance, is the most widely used standard for sustainable forestry.

2. Furniture made with reclaimed materials - 
If wood is taken care of, and sometimes even if it isn't, it can last a really, really long time. So shouldn't we be able to make good use of all the wood that's already out there? A lot of designers think so and are doing just that. Reclaimed wood usually comes from old furniture, houses, or other built things that are ready for some friendly reincarnation, from flawed wood, or from scraps from a factory that makes other stuff. Some reclaimed wood even comes from logs that sunk to the bottom of rivers as they were being floated downstream to the sawmill, or from the bottom of man-made reservoirs (check out the Sawfish). Either way, furniture made from reclaimed wood is a great example of resource efficiency, but usually comes in shorter supply. The Rainforest Alliance has a Rediscovered Wood Certification label to look for.

3. Bamboo - 
You've probably heard by this point that bamboo isn't a tree at all, but a grass. Bamboo represents a family of grasses that range in size from tiny to huge, and in color from lime green to maroon stripes. It is incredibly fast-growing and versatile and has become the unofficial poster material of environmental designers and builders. Bamboo can be flattened into flooring, molded into furniture, pressed into veneers, sliced up to make window blinds, or hey, you can just build your whole house out of it. Using bamboo in buildings earns architects and builders LEED points. Most bamboo comes from China and is grown with few of no pesticides. Because it is so fast growing, it is much easier to maintain healthy bamboo forests. This also means it uses a lot of water, however, and harvesting too fast can deplete soil fertility. Some growers do use pesticides and other chemical inputs, however, so keep that in mind. But for the most part, bamboo is one of the greenest materials around.

4. Recycled/recyclable metal and plastic
 - Since both metal and plastic are recyclable, at least in theory, these can be considered eco-friendly materials for furniture. More and more furniture is being made from recycled plastics and metals as well, like the recycled aluminum Icon Chair. Recycled materials require less processing and fewer resources, and help support the market for recycled materials. Technologies are always improving, meaning that recycled plastics and metals are always going up in quality. It's not all about materials, though, so here are some basic guiding principles to keep in mind when looking for furniture.

5. Recyclable and disassemblable - 
Good eco-friendly furniture should lend itself to easy repair, disassembly, and recycling. Products certified by MBDC’s C2C (Cradle 2 Cradle) product regimen are a perfect example, like certified office chairs from Herman Miller and Steelcase. These product can be easily taken apart, sorted into their constituent parts, and recycled at the end of their useful lives. When buying furniture, stay away from "monstrous hybrids", pieces that are an inseparable amalgam of materials. If they can't be taken apart it's probably a sign that they can't be repaired very well either.

6. Look for furniture that's durable and fixable
 - One of the most important but often overlooked aspects of green products (and this definitely goes for furniture) is durability. If something is tough and/or can be readily repaired, this lessens the chance that it'll end up in the landfill, and could easily save you money in the long run, even if it's initially more expensive. Even recyclable materials if they break (and can't be fixed) require energy and other resources to reprocess and then replace. Durable goods that will last a long time can be passed on from person to person. Even if your style changes and that kitchen table isn't your thing anymore, a good strong table will almost always be appealing to someone else, while a broken (and unfixable) one probably won't. When it's time to part with your possessions, think of Craigslist, Freecycle, or eBay, and find it a new home.

7. Low-toxicity furniture - 
When you buy a piece of furniture, bring it home, and set it down in a room, it doesn't just sit there. No matter what it's made out of, chances are, it's offgassing (or releasing substances into the air). Almost everything offgasses, which isn't necessarily bad, but synthetic materials or those treated with synthetic substances can offgas chemicals which are toxic. Volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, are the most common family of chemicals that are offgassed and have been linked to birth defects, endocrine disruption, and cancer. Flame retardants and formaldehyde are common VOCs offgassed by furniture. Especially if your home or office is well-insulated (which it should be for energy purposes) toxins can't get out easily. In fact, studies have shown that air quality inside your house (or car) is often worse than outside. Everyone should be conscious of the kinds of chemicals they bring home, but especially if you have kids, pets, or other family members who are low to the ground and prone to licking things. There are some good ways to help maintain good indoor air quality when it comes to furniture choices.

Greenguard is a certification which ensures furniture is low toxicity. Herman Miller, Haworth, Knoll, and Izzydesign all offer Greenguard certified furniture options. Also, look for furniture that is untreated or treated with natural substances, like natural wood finishes, or naturally tanned leather. Organic cotton is also less likely to be treated with toxic stuff. Another great way to dodge toxic chemicals is to buy furniture that is vintage or second-hand and has already done most of its offgassing (just make sure it doesn't carry anything worse, like lead paint). You can tell intuitively that new things offgas more actively-just think of that new car smell.

8. Buy vintage - 
With all the slick, mod, "eco" brands jumping into the market it can be hard to keep in mind that pre-owned goods can be the most green purchase of all. Vintage and second-hand and furniture requires no additional resources to manufacture, is often locally sources (cutting down on transportation), is pre-offgassed and eases the load on the landfill. Quality vintage furniture can also have excellent resale value (sometimes selling for the same price it was bought) which certainly can't be said for most new furniture, green or otherwise.

9. Buy local
 - Just like the food on the dinner plate, we might be amazed how many miles the constituent parts of a piece of furniture might have had to travel in order to reach us. If possible, source furniture close to home. This will support the local economy, small craftspeople, and decrease the environmental cost of shipping (not to mention the other kind of cost).

10. What to do with it when you're over it
 - We can't promise we're going to like something forever or that our furnishing needs won't change. When it's time to bid a chair, table, bed, or dresser farewell, make sure it goes to a good home. Sell it on Craigslist, eBay, or the local paper, give it away via Freecycle, or include it in your next yard sale. Putting it safely on the curb with a "free" sign on it can also do the trick. If you are the crafty type, lots of furniture can be repurposed into new functions or just freshened up with new paint or finish. No sturdy artifact should have to live out eternity in the landfill. If it's your mission to get deeper into the green furniture space, put on your designer's smock and start tinkering. Think about refurbishing old furniture or entirely repurposing other objects, like this bathtub turned arm chair. In this design, a clever individual speced out a top-notch chair from heavy-duty fabric-covered cardboard tubes, aluminum rings, and wood. Heavy-duty cardboard can be fashioned to interlock in creative ways. If you've got fertile ground and some time to spare you can even grow your own furniture to suit. The Spanish group Drap-Art has a reuse festival that is ripe with ideas.