Unique chair makes debut at Remix
No bones about it, Dave Cummine is an adventurous artisan.
“I’m really into the medieval, gothic thing. I love that stuff,” he said recently.
Take his skeleton chair, for instance. It will be featured in this year’s Remix, a sale of handmade, repurposed furniture and curios.
The skull is polymer but looks real.
“I tell people ‘don’t ask me where it came from, then you can’t be implicated.’“The hands came from tracing from my own hand and using dowels and gluing them on so I get a gripping pattern. The leather came from used leather that was stripped and dyed red. And basically the components came from old piano wood and a pool table frame.”
Cummine has made chairs out of old pianos and a wine server from an old radio cabinet.
He plans to turn another donated radio into a wine cabinet, this one with a skeleton torso emerging from the top.
“When you’re pulling out your wine, the skull is going to be looking at you right in your face.”
Cummine is a fan of “memento mori,” art that depicts skulls and skeletons, images of death that encourage you to appreciate life.
He got the idea for the skeleton chair from one he saw on the Internet, hand-carved from the 18th Century.
“It recently sold for, I think, $110,000. This chair won’t be going for $110,000.” Leading up to the sale, Cummine wasn’t quite sure how much to ask for the chair.
Cummine is the drummer for the band Kashmir and a nephew of Gordie Howe. He combined both of those things in creating two Howe tribute tables made from discarded drums. Both are sold, one heading, fittingly, to Detroit.
“I don’t like to throw things away,” says Cummine.
Remix is meant to counteract over consumption through upcycling, says Cynthia Dyck, creative director of the event.
“Upcycling involves reclaiming unwanted objects, and recreating them into something new and functional. The practice of upcycling is another step toward landfill reduction.”
Remix runs Saturday and Sunday at the Refinery. Hours are Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.