I met an interesting fellow on Saturday. He was sitting in Gallery 50 talking with Alexis Seeley. It seems as if Alexis is almost always at Gallery 50, but when Tom Bazis is showing one of his hand carved rocking chairs, she spends more time there than usual. It turned out that the bulldog of a man visiting with Alexis was the very man who made $15,000 worth of the most comfortable sculpture ever shown in Gallery 50. Tom Bazis knows that the chances of selling a five-to-eight thousand dollar bubinga and walnut rocker in Bridgeton hover somewhere between slim and none, but the Philadelphia native says that he shows at Gallery 50 because, "I like the people here. I like this town. This lets me visit South Jersey" He has sold at least one chair in Bridgeton. The gallery commission made about half their annual budget. Bazis also regularly sells his work, including the rockers, tables, and other sculpture, at Surroundings Furniture and Design on Tilton Road in Northfield. I asked Bazis how he started making such exotic chairs and he said that the path he took was complicated. In the early 70's, unsure where he was going in life, Tom joined the Peace Corps. He was sent to Venezuela where he did everything from plant gardens to help deliver a baby. While he was there, Tom met a famous sculptor from Ecuador and asked if he could teach him sculpture. The man (whose name I missed...) gave Bazis a block of wood and two knives and said, "I want you to make me a carving of your hand." The man admitted later that he thought he would never see Bazis or his tools again, but when Tom showed him his work, the Ecuadoran asked, "Who did this?" When he heard the answer - "I did" - he took Bazis under his wing and taught him about traditional sculpture techniques. When Bazis returned to southwest Philadelphia in 1973, famous radio personality Tom Meltzer became his first patron, giving him $150,000 to buy a house to use as a studio. Bazis sold his first rocker for $750. "That was a long time ago," he reminded me. He has had some other support from similar patrons over the years, but according to Bazis, he is "just a simple man who sells a few chairs." After hearing some of Tom's story, I asked him if he was famous. He said, "Some people may have heard of me, but if you Google me, you will probably find out more about my career as a football coach or a Spanish teacher. I don't really promote myself or write for any magazines, so I don't think I will ever be famous." I decided to do just as he said and I Googled "Tom Bazis." The first thing that popped up was the Gallery 50 web site that features my own photos of the Bazis family sculpture, including two of Tom's rockers and one coffee table. He really should be better known. Looking to the future, Bazis sent some photos and information to the popular television show, Antiques Roadshow. "I have sold about 115 chairs to date. They are going to last at least 100 years, so I know they will run across one eventually and I just want them to know what they are looking at." What they are looking at will be a custom made rocking chair that has been painstakingly crafted by hand with a minimum of reliance on power tools. "I use a band saw and a few other basic power tools, but most of the work is done by hand - even the sanding and polishing." He explained that he does not use any dowels, screws, or nails. His chairs are all assembled with joinery skills, creating furniture that actually gets stronger with age. The principle joint is a mortise dovetail, that locks the individual pieces together. Before assembly, the pieces are held in a controlled moisture level with one part at 6% humidity and the other at 10% humidity, so that after they are assembled the moisture content will equalize and the joint will actually fuse and become rigid and immobile. Tom has learned all about making rockers with just the right seat and arm length. He can determine the proper balance point and pedestal position for any individual. That's right. Some of his rocking chairs will feel just perfect for you and others are just not a good fit for your body. When it's right, though, it's really right. Just ask Alexis.

So today, technically was the first day of my vacation, I would normally be at work right now. I slept in, hung around the house and made homemade bread. I was comfortable and well adjusted so I decided to screw all that up and go to IKEA today. That was a big mistake. I thought, its Sunday, I was going late, it can't be that bad, I thought. First off, I got on the highway, 2 minutes later I was in gridlock due to an accident on the highway. That took like 30 minutes to get through, I got to New Haven where IKEA is and there was another accident and I was forced off the highway and onto the city streets to navigate to IKEA. I got there, great. all I wanted was a bookshelf, and some organization thingys for my magazines. I mulled over the bookcases, get a big cheap bookcase for 20 bucks or a small sturdy bookcase that I could actually fit where I needed it to for 40. Why is it the little stuff is often more expensive than the big stuff at Ikea? So I bought the 40 dollar one. I saw a big sign saying 4 dollars for the magazine organizer so I got 4 of those. I went through the CF at the registers and self checked myself out, when I realized they charged me 8 dollars for the magazine thingys. I questioned someone and he basically told me I was wrong and that they wern't 4 dollars. arrrrrgh, so I left, fought my way out of the parking lot and drove home in pretty much gridlock. So now I need to assemble my bookcase, and damn it I am going to use power tools, it doesn't call for them in the instructions but damn it I need to drill somthing! anyway hopefully this will help straighten out my computer room... hopefully. Who knows what fun awaits me tomarrow.