April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
Icarus carving holy reputation
"It's not just a supper; it's the Lord's Supper," co-founder Jim Lewis said emphatically. "The pieces have to be so overstated compared to home furnishings. The first altar we did, the top was eight inches thick; today, I'd make it even bigger."
Icarus Furniture's work can be found in a host of churches and Catholic institutions in the Albany Diocese, from the Hubbard Interfaith Chapel at The College of Saint Rose in Albany to Corpus Christi parish in Round Lake (see sidebar).
Roots
That wasn't always the case. When Mr. Lewis took a job at a small furniture store in Troy in the early 1970s, he spent most of his time making waterbeds for students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute -- something he describes today with a wry smile.Those years taught him to design and build furniture; and in 1977, he and Marianne Briggs founded Icarus Furniture, initially making everything from bookcases to coffee tables. Eventually, "ceremonial furnishings" became the business' specialty.
"I've always wanted to do a lot of different things," Mr. Lewis explained. "One of the first pieces we had done was a pulpit for the Berith Shalom Synagogue. I liked doing that; there was something a little bit contemplative about it."
Deeper grain
When it comes to furnishings like pulpits and altars, he noted, "you just can't knock 'em out."He and fellow designer Christopher Lohr found that building furniture for sacred spaces gave their work a greater purpose.
"I wanted to do pieces that would make more of a difference to our society than household furniture usually does and have more artistic expression to them," said Mr. Lewis.
Dovetailing
Mr. Lewis was raised an Episcopalian, while Mr. Lohr is a Catholic. The heads of Icarus, along with four cabinetmakers who work with them -- and a host of silversmiths, coppersmiths, glassblowers and other crafters who pitch in -- bring an ecumenical flavor to their work."We try to make pieces people of any affiliation can see in their setting," Mr. Lewis remarked.
Through their work, the designers met Rev. Richard Vosko, a priest of the Albany Diocese who is internationally known as a designer and consultant for worship environments.
"He gave us a leg up," Ms. Briggs told The Evangelist. Father Vosko recommended the store to parishes, and parishes told their peers who were looking for furnishings. Today, Icarus Furniture builds items for institutions all over the country.
Carving a niche
On a typical afternoon recently, the tiny storefront in downtown Troy housed two employees fitting columns onto an intricate, curved altar for the Maryknoll Fathers, carved to evoke thoughts of a boat. Nearby sat a half-finished wooden bench in an African style, made for the Ellen Sinopoli dance company.Mr. Lewis noted that he just contracted to make a cross for the church he grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Since it's an agricultural community, he plans to feature roots and seeds in the carvings on the cross.
"That's what communities do: They put down roots, offer their seeds to each other," he explained.
Blueprints
When Icarus Furniture contracts with a parish or organization to build a piece of furniture, the designers go to the building to take photos. If it's newly designed, they ask to see architectural plans.They also look at church bulletins, newsletters, existing art and icons -- even the priest's vestments -- and speak to parishioners about their church's approach to spirituality. Some parishes are passionate about an ethnic heritage, for example; others have a focus on evangelism or social justice.
"We take all this input and let it percolate for a while," said Mr. Lewis. Then the designers come up with several ideas and show them to their clients.
Plane truth
Usually, Mr. Lewis noted, clients don't have a concrete idea of what they want. He helps to formulate that by telling them, "When you set up for a ceremony, you enter `temenos' -- sacred time and place. You set yourself apart from the world. Everything we do with the furniture reflects that idea."The designer also tries to create focal points for worshippers. Often, he added, churches have used several different styles of architecture in one room, and the furnishings can combine styles to resolve that clash.
"You go into some churches, and you don't know where to look," he said. "It should be clear: This is the altar; this is the ambo."
Finishing touches
Building a piece of furniture can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months; an altar, for instance, takes eight to 20 weeks to complete.The designers use a variety of materials, particularly light woods, "because things show up better. We use a lot of curly maple; it shimmers in the light." Mr. Lewis also likes to use hammered steel and copper in his furniture.
Witnessing the finished product is a satisfying moment for both designer and client. Mr. Lewis emotionally described an Easter service at Immaculate Conception parish in Glenville, at which an altar and tabernacle his store built were first seen by more than 1,000 Mass-goers.
"The enthusiasm, the energy and being a part of making that happen is just a wonderful feeling!" he stated.
Chest
Other projects evoke darker feelings. The designer recalled building a reliquary of bloodwood, a scarlet-colored wood, for a group of Sacramentine sisters in Scarsdale, Long Island.The order is devoted to perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, he said; at one time in their history, they could not worship publicly because of threats to the faith. They hid the host in a chest and worshipped in secret.
Thinking of the replica he built still brings him to tears. "We made them that chest," he said simply.
Icarus' most recent projects include several pieces in birch, maple and walnut for the Maryknoll Fathers. Mr. Lewis showed off one piece, a large "president's chair."
"It's a chair, but it has the lines of the robe of office over the chair," reflecting the role of the presider at liturgy, he said. "When somebody sits in it in a cassock, the chair disappears and the person seems bigger."
Rings of age
Eighty to 90 percent of Icarus' work is for churches, most of them in the Albany Diocese. The designer especially enjoys making furnishings for Catholic churches."The Church is a whole culture that's gone on for thousands of years," he said, and he sees his work as "helping people relate to that."
Even with a packed schedule, Mr. Lewis said it's easy to remain passionate about his work.
"When you get distracted, focus again on the simple part of it," he said. "Sometimes, it's the way a chisel cuts through wood,...the way the light breaks over a carved surface,...watching people light up when they see [a completed piece] for the first time."
On display
Icarus Furniture hosts displays of its work when the designers complete a project. "I love showing the stuff to people!" Mr. Lewis said gleefully.He especially enjoys non-churchgoers' reactions: "I love to show this work to folks who think the only thing you find in church is something stuffy and old."
Icarus Furniture has built altars, pulpits, tabernacles, ambos, chairs, lamps and other furnishings -- but there's one piece of church furniture they will not build.
"Pews they make by the mile," Mr. Lewis said scornfully. "We don't do pews."
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