I’ve a friend in Dulan who makes drift wood furniture. He collected stacks of wood after Typhoon Moracot and has created many beautiful pieces. If anyone would like to buy some of his work I’m sure he’d appreciate the business.
If as he says “I don’t end up on the cutting room floor,” he’ll be featured in one of Janet’s shows on Discovery (end of September, I think).
Here’s a picture of Janet gracing one of his works. That chair was picked up by an art gallery in Taipei. You can visit photos of his work here and perhaps order any that haven’t been sold. He sometimes comes to Taipei to sell at the Tienmu market.
Roman has been making art in many forms for years and years, furniture being his latest interest. He is also recognized for his masks and leatherwork that he sold out of his shop in Taichung and at summer festivals like Spring Scream before heading to Dulan with his wife, Emily.
He told me that when Morokot hit, he noticed all this beautiful wood coming down the river and washing up on the beach. Thinking it a shame to let it go to waste, he traded something (a motorcycle or a guitar? I forget, but it was something interesting, as always with Roman) with a local for a chainsaw and spent his days collecting wood and hauling it back to his compound on his shoulders. A lot of his pieces adorn and furnish the guest house, which can be found on facebook here: facebook.com/home.php?ref=ho … 211?ref=ts
I look forward to seeing the episode of Taiwan Fun and would appreciate if anyone could post when it’ll be on. I’d ask Roman, but I don’t think he has a tv, lol.
Actually, I know Roman has an interest in furniture, but the furniture featured is by Mike.
I shouldn’t leave Barry (ex. Bliss) out of the picture. Here is a photo of his new guest house in Dulan. It’s on the main street about 200meters up from the Sugar Factory.
My bad and apologies to Mike, then. I know the last time I saw Roman, he said he was doing a lot of things with wood, so assumed it must have been his. Good to see there is a lot going on up there in Dulan with the different guesthouses and all going up.
[quote=“Mucha Man”]Barry has a guesthouse now too? Jesus, I can’t keep up with the changes in Dulan.
Met mike last January. Nice fellow. Like the look of those pieces. Very beautiful wood for sure. Do you have any idea of the price?[/quote]
I’m not sure if Barry has opened his guest house yet, but as you can see from the photo it’s well advanced.
Michael’s furniture ranges in price from about 1300 for a bedside or small ornamental table to about 25,000. In the picture above, the piece Janet is sitting on, sold for about 20 something (I don’t know if Janet sitting on it improved the price) and the other piece he’s working on sold for 12000. It was bought by a local Taiwanese. Most of his pieces are made of Hinoki (not sure of the spelling) anyway, it’s that sortafter fragrant pine.
A show would be over stating it, but he’ll be at the market in Tienmu tomorrow night. Thanks for the reminder. The evening market starts at 3pm. It’s worth a visit.
Well, I missed the heads up on the TV show because Mike had no idea either, but thanks to modern technology TV schedules are largely a thing of the past – here’s the video. Janet wows me. There is a little bit of Anthony Bourdain about this piece and a lot more of Janet and her down-to-earth delightful way.
Great piece. Great spot. Roman’s a great guy. I’m sure he has no recollection of me, though we’ve met several times. I can see why you go down there so much.
Edit: In fact I liked that TV spot so much that I just now wrote a cool little calypso beat tune for the uke. It should be their signature song, although I do say so myself.
[quote]Great piece. Great spot. Roman’s a great guy. I’m sure he has no recollection of me, though we’ve met several times. I can see why you go down there so much.
Edit: In fact I liked that TV spot so much that I just now wrote a cool little calypso beat tune for the uke. It should be their signature song, although I do say so myself.[/quote]
You would love the life down there sandman. In fact, there is a guy called Red Eye who makes ukuleles from cigar boxes; they don’t sound too bad either.
They showed the guest house tonight on Era TV at 7:16 -during the fireworks, so probably a lot of people saw it- with Roman shirtless - - and Emi introducing the different themes.
Congrats on the coming “addition”, BTW.
Lovely place, lovely couple. Hope they have a lot of success as they certainly have put a lot of heart into this “gust house in communion with nature”.
