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A New Upholstery Association Wants to Unite and Rebuild the U.S. Industry
The American upholstery industry recently issued itself a call to action: Now is the time to unite and rebuild, or else… Part SOS, part call to arms, a new generation sought to preserve an industry that was left to perish when vocational upholstery programs closed their doors decades ago. Enter the National Upholstery Association (NUA). Founded by eight professional women upholsterers from seven states, it launched in July 2019 with a mission of “working together to support and advance the field of professional upholstery.” The timing may be critical. Currently, seasoned upholsterers are in short supply. Shops can’t afford the time and resources necessary to provide intensive training. And newcomers…
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American Manufacturing in a Backyard
In the fall of 2015, I was hired to strip furniture and put the easy pieces back together again for a small shop that sold upcycled goods in North Oakland. I worked outside, on the back patio of a woman’s house. I remember it being sunny and warm, being fit as hell (the 8 mile bike ride helped), and being crazy nostalgic for a different era of American manufacturing. Serendipitously, the book, “Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local – and Helped Save an American Town,” was released just a few months earlier. It was a mesmerizing story that, growing up on the west coast, had never…
