Tanglewood Conservatories Blog – Alan Stein's Writings about Custom Conservatory Design and More

My earlier comment about “most books being like skeletons in a graveyard…” is related to my experiences as an artist.

To me, the most important aspect of creating art, is the experience that I encounter as I confront the creative process.

Years ago, I discovered that there were several ways that my mind could work. At the “lowest” level, the ideas that come out are simply an automatic regurgitation of preconceptions. In this way, I am not really seeing anything about the particular project itself or anything new, but just working from memory of things I’ve seen or heard before with no sense of what is appropriate at this moment.

It seemed to me that a good word to describe this level of interaction was: automatic. I also saw that unfortunately, most “artistic” endeavors happen at this level.

I thought: “If I want to design a chair for example, where do I usually begin? Where do most of us begin something like this? With what we already know. I have seen hundreds of chairs in all sizes, shapes, designs etc., so presto, into my mind comes a favorite and off I go with my design!

A step or more up from this is what seemed to be denoted by the word: sensitive. Suddenly, my mind would “see” the relationships that were specific to this particular thing and I was able to use my sensitivity to arrange them in a way that made it more itself in a way. It was as if I woke up. I can see that what I was doing before was only working from something very automatic.

So I might suddenly begin to think about the question: What is this thing, a chair? What need is it trying to fulfill? How can I design something that best fills that need, even if it looks nothing like the “chair” in my mind, and I start to solve the problem of “a chair” for and of itself, not related to the hundreds of preconceived notions of a chair that are in my “automatic” mind. This can not only lead to some very interesting and creative outcomes, but is also an interesting exercise to be tried for itself.

Most of the time, I find it very difficult to make this mental leap and get below the surface. Even when I am thinking about it and trying to do it, I am just only “thinking” about it, not “doing” it. Even when I see this, other preconceived thoughts come up to take their place.

Something usually has to happen to jolt me into seeing it in a different way. I think that many good artists are able to work at this level with out the struggle, it just seems to come about naturally.

For me, the process of challenging myself is far more important than the final result of the creative process, no matter how great the outcome. That is why the result, the finished design or piece of “art” I consider really only incidental. It is only what remains after the spark of creativity. It is the just the skeleton left over.

On some rare occasion, another way of “seeing” appears by itself and there is something so new that it would be as if it did not come from my mind at all. This is what I thought to call true creativity.

Happy Holidays to all.

Alan

Set to lift the cupola into place with crane.

Icy trim parts.

I was inspired this morning when on opening my email, I found these pictures of a conservatory greenhouse project we are currently building in the frigid Northeast along with a note from our lead installer on the project, Jim.

Our clients, hopeful that we could design, manufacture and actually complete the installation of their new greenhouse before winter set in begged us to work expeditiously towards that end. They dearly wanted to be able to start to use the room this year. It might actually have been a Christmas present for someone – I don’t know, but that has been requested of us before.

His note: “Team, Crane arrived on time and lift (of cupola) proceeded without incident. Started exterior cornice and pilasters. Had a big daytime high of 28 degrees (F) with a significant wind chill. That stuff you see hanging off the pilaster is solid ice. Jim”

Normally, we would not tackle an installation of one of our conservatory projects in wintery weather unless there was an overriding reason. A project can be successfully built in the cold, even in the snow (we completed an installation in a blizzard once), however the going is much slower and extra special attention must be paid to everyone’s safety and the sequence of assembly steps. Our extremely dedicated team however is up to the challenge when required.

All of us here at Tanglewood realize that the satisfaction of our clients is the most important thing in the end and we are willing to pull together to do what ever is asked and to work a little extra to make them happy, even if it costs us a bit more to do. This is the way I believe a business needs to treat people if it wants to build itself into a great company.

One of the next jobs the team is scheduled to tackle is in Hawaii so we hope that thought helps to keep them warm.

Great job, everyone on the Tanglewood team, thank you!

“Enlightenment is not about becoming something different than we are, but seeing what we already are.”

Alan

The thought occurred to me as I was recently reading, that most books are like skeletons in the graveyard. The flash of creative life that was genesis of the work (if there was any to begin with) is long gone and only the words, empty of that force, remain.

Words seem to mean something entirely different for each person. Sometimes I’m reminded of that Sunday school story of the Tower of Babel, (if I remember it correctly), where they were trying to build a tower up to heaven until God made them all speak in different languages at which time their work came to an immediate halt.

It seems that we are all still speaking in different languages even though we are using the exact same words – and we don’t normally realize it, and we get really upset with other people when they don’t agree with us!

It’s not surprising that there is so much discord in the world, if you look at it from this perspective.

One of the most important things we are working on here at Tanglewood is communication. The perspective that we have focused on is that of personality types. It seems that compounding the “language barrier”, (or maybe being part of it), is the difference in how each of us relate to the world based on our particular personality type. No matter which personality typing system that you use, the basic concept is the same.

It seems that people “see” and relate to the world around them through the particular color of their own “glasses”. We all come to the world pre-programmed in this way both by our heredity (nature) and our upbringing (nurture). Each personality typing system seeks build some sort of classification system that groups certain traits together and hopefully helps us understand and make some sense out of our similarities and differences.

The aim, I think is, if we can understand more objectively what and who we are and what and who others are, we might have a better chance (on a good day!) of communicating more effectively and less destructively.

One other thing about all this that I recently noticed is about working together in a group. It seemed to me that my own particular way of being connected to the world (my personality type) offers me up both a potential benefit as well as a trap. If I can learn what my strengths are, what I can rely on in myself to get right in a situation, I have a valuable, powerful asset. But, unless I can also see where my blind spots are, what do I continually, almost by nature, miss in situations, I will forever go round in circles.

This is where the study of personality types might be of some assistance, since if I can identify with a particular “type”, then I might be able to benefit from a more objective view of myself. I would guess that the best of systems would also come with some tools in addition,to help one build on ones strengths and mitigate one’s weaknesses.

If I can gain some degree of objectivity, then I might actually be able to “listen” more objectively to other people and find a benefit in their alternate perspective on a situation.

At Tanglewood, we are working in just this way to be able to build a team in which people understand the limitations of their own perspective and value the perspective of others. If we can do this, our team can become infinitely stronger and more effective because we have the potential to see an issue from many more points of view than just our own personal limited one (no matter how great it is).

We have seen breakthroughs here as a result of this process and continue to push forward building a truly great, world class company, and learning something about ourselves in the process.

Well, I didn’t really mean to talk about this when I started writing today, but there it is! I’ll get to the other stuff later.

Alan

I was driving to work the other day when I spied these two bald eagles sitting by their nest in a tree about fifty yards from the road. Years ago, this would have been a rare sight but the population of bald eagles is rising here on the Eastern Shore and now, while not common, they can be seen every now and then.

The bald eagle is a magnificent creature. A full grown adult’s wing span is almost eight feet across and the contrast between it’s deep dark body and it’s brilliant white head and tail is strikingly beautiful when seen in the wild against muted landscape.

Normally, they roost alongside the rivers and bay to have easy access for fishing. The nest in this picture is about three foot across, typical for the big bird.

I can always spot one flying in the distance, it’s wings seem to flap more heavily than the other large birds. It gives me the sense that it’s body is so large, that even with those great powerful wings, it has to work harder to keep aloft. Then in a magnificent instant, it glides to water’s surface from above, extends it’s talons and effortlessly and magically ascends with big fish in hand.

I’ve seen them routinely pick up rockfish (sea bass as we call them here) two feet long, then sluggishly lumber away to the nearest limb to tear at their prey with knife like beak and claws.

Also- In reading a book recently about the Enneagram, a vey ancient geometric diagram that symbolizes and maps the structure of certain types of events, the author uses Sir Isaac Newton’s well know experiment in which he uses a prism to refract sunlight coming through a small opening in his shuttered window to illustrate how the event of setting up and performing the experiment conforms with this structure.

I don’t remember much about Newton from my high school physics classes, but the author mentions that Newton, shortly before he died said: “I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”

This unflinchingly honest self-evaluation stuck me, especially coming from such a man. Who amongst us realizes that the sum of everything that we know is a mere microscopic speck compared to everything there is. How quick we are to think we know so much and have achieved so much!

Alan

I’ve been asked to participate next April in a panel discussion at the Woodworking Industry Conference in Monterey California. The program is entitled “Green User’s Forum, Simple Steps To Take To Go $Green”. The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Michael Galiazzo, Director of the Regional Manufacturing Institute (www.rmi……com) and along with myself and Dr. Galiazzo, David Beachley President of Beachley Furniture Company and Greg Moores Vice President of DEWALT Construction Engineering will share the podium.

In my experience, it is difficult for most small companies to make significant progress towards becoming greener. We have enough of a challenge just to keep the doors open, the product going out and the money coming in, especially in tough economic times. However, at Tanglewood, we’ve discovered that “going Green goes hand-in-hand with going Lean.”

What I mean by this is that if looked at from the right perspective, “green” initiatives can actually be major contributors to higher levels of efficiency in a company and increases to the bottom line. Oftentimes, we think of green initiatives as costing more money in the short term but yielding some long term or greater benefit in the larger picture. An example of this might be the recycling and re-use of our scrap wood into material that can be used in new product.

This is actually quite labor intensive and costs much more than using virgin material but we understand that the resources of the world are finite and we must do our part to utilize them in the least wasteful manner. If we were a larger company, we could purchase specialized equipment that would automate much of the process and bring down the costs however most small companies (and by far most companies out there are “small businesses”) cannot justify the expense of something like this.

In the big picture however, the recycled material is actually stronger and more stable than the virgin product so there is a bit of an advantage there to offset the higher cost. If we looked at the picture close enough and spent enough time, we might be able to verify this with real numbers. Right now however, we are content to just “know” that we are doing the right thing.

Another opportunity to combine Lean with Green is through our use of technology. For example, for years we’ve put our construction documents on sheets of paper and passed out multiple copies to everyone on our shop floor and in our office. This is not only expensive (uses lots and lots of paper) and very wasteful, but it is difficult to keep all those sets of drawings up to date with changes that one person or another might be making to the job.

The solution of having electronic copies instead of paper copies avoids wasting a huge amount of paper, eliminates the need for all the printing from ink to electricity AND makes it much easier to keep everyone updated on changes which could affect them and the job. Instead of having to have someone run around the company collecting and updating paper and hopefully not missing any copies, the electronic update is done instantaneously and everyone is always working off the same pages. A nice win-win situation. Green and Lean.

I will be presenting examples of Tanglewood Conservatories’ efforts to become a greener and more environmentally friendly company at the conference and in my blog in the future.

Here’s the blurb on the conference session in case anyone is interested in attending.

“Going $Green means cost savings, increased profits and less impact on the environment. Over the past two years, The Regional Manufacturing Institute of Maryland brought together leaders of business, education government, labor and the community at large to talk and learn about Going $Green. The results were surprising. In this presentation you will find out what companies are doing to be more sustainable and why. Increased sales, decreased costs, employee involvement, supply chain value, and corporate responsibility will be discussed. You will learn about the Lean To Green initiative of the Technology and Innovation in Manufacturing and Engineering (TIME) Center, a National Science Foundation sponsored initiative through the Community College of Baltimore County. EPA programs, like the Green Suppliers Network will be discussed. Specific ways your company can save money by Going $Green will be presented. Most important, this session will call on the audience to respond to questions about Going $Green and to engage in discussion, questions and information sharing.”

The 2010 Woodworking Industry Conference will be held this year at the Monterey Hyatt Regency Resort & Spa in Monterey California April 22- 24th 2010.

Alan

A few weeks ago we were invited to participate in a Home Show hosted by the prestigious firm of Crisp Architects. The firm is located in the town of Millbrook – the Hudson Valley region of upstate NY.

We had never visited this part of the country and were eager to meet our colleagues and tour the region. We were immediately struck by the beauty of the landscape and the vast amount of craftsmen directly and indirectly involved with Crisp specializing in historic renovation, custom home design and “accessory buildings” as they call them which are stand alone guest houses and pool houses.

Many of these projects utilize the expertise of Tanglewood Conservatories. We are often commissioned outside of the firm to act as catalyst in achieving many of these special design requests at various stages of the project.

We develop partnerships and design collaboration with firms such as Crisp in order to execute design elements that Tanglewood is uniquely equipped to handle. This is something we are being asked to do more and more of.

Many clients that may want the feel of a conservatory or greenhouse but unable to financially support such a project – are opting for a scaled down version such as a glass shingled roof addition, copper domed roof or cupola, stained glass windows, detailed copper finials… Perhaps a historic structure in need of an attached or unattached green house designed to replicate the historic elements of the main home. These are projects well suited for Tanglewood Conservatories’ craftsmen.

At the show we met with a wealth of experts in landscape design, solar alternatives, geo-termal technology, millworkers, traditional artisans and were in awe of the multitude of talent in such a quaint historic village but also with the beauty of the scenery. Rolling farm land with horses abound, historic stone houses, polo fields, charming restaurants and shops.

We viewed the work of local artist Anthony Henneberg a bird painter from Zimbabwe who has chosen the area as his new home for it’s bucolic attributes and vast array of bird specimens, we wandered around Mashomack Polo Club and even did a little wine tasting and antiquing! Special thanks to our friends at Crisp Architects for introducing us to such a beautiful little village – Millbrook is a must see!

We get a lot of people telling us that we’ve done a great job, but since we take very good care of each and every one of our customers, naturally we’re happy, but not surprised when they tell us how happy they are with our customer service.

But a recent thank you note surprised us because it came not from a satisfied homeowner, but the owner of a company we rented some equipment from.

Jeff Chipetine, president of ABC Rental wrote: “Thanks for the chance to work with your exceptional crew. The people with whom I had primary contact, were skilled, well spoken and just terrific!”

“They reflect well on you and on Tanglewood Conservatories.” This came on a handwritten card via snailmail from a guy we rented some scaffolding and a skytrack lull for a couple of weeks from!

We appreciate the compliment and also recognize that Jeff is doing right by taking care of his customers as well.

Another note we got this week was from someone we built a conservatory for some fifteen years ago. He had a small leak in the roof and being the do-it-yourself type, climbed up on a ladder and squirted some caulk into what seemed to be the troublesome spot.

When that didn’t fix the problem, he called and spoke to me. I immediately remembered him, as I do most of our customers, and I asked him to send some pictures of the leaky spot on the inside and the outside of the room to help me diagnose the situation.

When I saw the pictures, it was very clear to me that though he had correctly identified the place where the leak was coming from, the sealant was not adhering adequately to the aluminum and glass. I suspected that he was using the “dimestore” variety of silicone sealant which would account for his lack of success.

I suggested that he strip the area in question of all the old built up caulk he had put on, clean the surfaces with denatured alcohol and use the special glazing sealant that I would send him.

Two weeks later and I received the following note:

“We have had two heavy rains since I caulked with the caulking you sent. There was no leak confirming that you are a genius.” I still have the American Airlines magazine containing your ad if you want it although you probably have several copies.” “Thanks for your help.” Bill

I know that we aren’t perfect, in fact we make more mistakes than I’d like anyone to know, but I’ve always believed that the measure of a company (and a person) is not what they do when everything is going well, but what they do when things aren’t going so well.

That is why we are so obsessive about taking care of our customers even when it costs us dearly or it isn’t so clear that the responsibility for a problem is ours.

Alan

A proverb I came across goes: “Each of us has a great Teacher within. All we have to do is to heed all the advice we so freely give to others.”

Matthias Steinbach, his fiancé Simona, Nancy and I in the showroom of the Steinbach Company

On Wednesday morning we drove from Wurtzburg on the Main River to Solms near Wetzlar to visit the firm of Steinbach Wintergartens.

We were graciously met by Matthias Steinbach and his fiancé Simona. The Steinbach Company is all about production efficiency. The wintergartens they build are as beautiful and well built as others, but Mathias and his father, the second generation Steinbach in the business have cleverly developed very efficient methods of designing and producing the various standard models that are in their repertoire.

The conservatories in their showroom are artistically surrounded by pools of water.

This was an eye opener for me and gave me a goal to strive for – to be able to produce the varied and complex conservatories that Tanglewood is known for with the efficiency of the Steinbach Wintergarten company.

Again we were impressed with the openness and generosity of Matthias, his father and Simona, as they set aside a great deal of time from their busy schedules to meet with Nancy and I. Their enthusiasm for the business they have built and the unique systems they have developed was definitely contagious. We quickly found ourselves deep in discussion of the many details of designing and building conservatories and building and running a successful business.

After our meeting, we drove to the small town of Vegesack near Bremen on the northern coast. It is a small waterside town which reminded me a bit of the Eastern Shore. You might not be able to see them, but at the very right side of the picture below are several windmills on the horizon. These are very large, with blades that are about 120 feet long. You can see them all over Germany as the Germans take alternative energy and energy efficiency much more seriously than we do in the US.

Vegesack Harbor

On Friday morning, we drove a short distance to Delmenhorst for a very interesting meeting with Jurgen Hohnholt, owner of the Winter-Green conservatory company.

Jurgen designs and builds the most stylized English conservatories I saw in Germany during our trip. Jurgen took over the business from his father 25 years ago when they were making only windows, doors and cabinetry and quickly decided to expand in to conservatories. Not knowing about how a conservatory should be built (there were none in Germany at the time) he had to figure out the methods of construction himself.

The surprising thing about this for me was that we had to do the same thing when Nancy and I started Tanglewood 15 years ago and the construction details and methods we developed are almost exactly the same as the ones I saw Jurgen using! We were all happily surprised about this and felt that this was confirmation that the solutions to the construction issues that we independently came up with, were indeed correct.

Jurgen, Nancy & I inside Winter-Green Conservatories Workshop

Jurgen designed his workshop building himself!

The people here are unbelievably helpful and generous. They have shared everything from their time to the details of their business with Nancy and I. It is very impressive. They have opened their businesses, their homes and their hearts in a big way. We feel very appreciative.

Next – we arrive in Hamburg and meet with the Wintergarten-Fachverband group.

Auf Wiedersehen,

Alan

New Website Design:
You may have noticed the new look of our website recently. In response to feedback from viewers, we expanded the width of the pages to make them more legible and better displayed on the wider computer monitors that are much more prevalent these days.

I’m reminded of our very first website which was put up way back in 1997. A friend of ours put it together over a weekend- it was only about 3 pages! At that time there was a 26 character limit to all the URL’s so we couldn’t even use our full name, Tanglewood Conservatories.

Since then we’ve had four major complete redesigns, and several major updates along the way.

If anyone has any feedback/ comments on the new design- or maybe something else we should consider adding or changing on the site, please let me know. We would like to make the site as relevant and easy to use as possible and would appreciate everyone’s comments.

Another trip to Germany:
Nancy and I have been invited to address members of the German association of Wintergarden manufacturers (Wintergarten-Fachverband) in Hamburg next month. Wintergardens are as we call them, conservatories, greenhouses, orangeries etc.

The chairman of the association noted in an email to us that he found our website by pure chance on a Sunday morning and was very impressed.

After some consideration, we decided to accept his offer as we would like the opportunity to meet with some of our industry counterparts in Germany.

There are many subjects that I feel we can share with others – not only about our custom conservatory design and building but about some unique aspects of our company – which soon I will also begin to talk about here.

When I was in Germany last year looking at machinery suppliers and woodworking facilities, I was impressed by many aspects of the German approach to manufacturing and business and I’m happy to have the opportunity to return.

I will post entries throughout my visit there, as I did before, to chronicle our trip’s highlights.

Renewed interest in Greenhouses:
Along with the new sense of the importance of everything being Green, comes a renewed interest in greenhouses.

We’ve seen a surge of interest in our greenhouses including clients who are actually interested in growing their own food! This would obviously not be subsistence growing, but the idea of producing one’s own food rather than purchasing it from afar off has a definite attraction.

I’ve been much more attuned to where things come from when I shop these days and I’m a bit dismayed when I see that for example, often the apples come all the way from New Zealand. They usually taste like it as well.

The zucchini that I get at our local supermarket, and I try to buy organic as much as possible, comes from someplace in the US but the package does not say where.

Last summer some of the folks at Tanglewood who have gardens, brought in zucchinis which compared to the supermarket ones were from another planet. The fresh local ones were so delicious I could have almost eaten them with nothing else and had a great meal.

I can hardly ever bring myself to buy the store bought ones anymore and I’m thinking of building a custom greenhouse so I can enjoy great produce all year round – though this might be just an excuse to design and build another one of our great conservatories.

All the best, Alan