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In a college town like Geneva, N.Y., the most amazing people turn up. Take Jonathan Benson, a furniture maker with a bent for curves and a futurist past.

Futurist, in this case, refers to an early 20th-century design school from Italy. The futurists worshipped the machine and incorporated movement into their designs. Benson studied the school and has been influenced by its emphasis on motion, using curves as a vibrant element in his work.

Having taught at the now defunct Genoa Woodworking School, about 60 miles and two Finger Lakes from Geneva, Benson set up his studio here when his wife, Sherry Wise, joined the faculty of Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

They recently bought a large old house on South Main Street and now divide their time between furniture making in Jon's case, teaching environmental economics in Sherry's, and renovating the house.

Benson doesn't travel light. An established furniture maker who places his pieces in top-flight galleries from coast to coast, he's had logistical problems moving. Consider not only shop equipment like the 10" table saw, the Mini-Max jointer-planer, an air compressor, the massive clamping press and jigs, but also the office tools like a computer, word processor, drafting table and photographic equipment.

He has since acquired an industrial-size lathe. In the garage adjoining his studio, Benson stores a few hundred board feet of mahogany picked up at an auction.

While he would never call himself an intellectual, Benson has a bachelor's degree from Iowa State (where his dad teaches English) and a master's degree in fine arts from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).

He taught as an assistant at RISD and also at the Wheeler School in Providence, R.I., before moving to the Ithaca, N.Y. area and Genoa.

Born in Iowa, Benson, 35, took a few years off between high school and college to work in a Santa Fe, N.M., production factory turning out Taos-style products—an apprenticeship of sorts. This made him a few years older than his class when he enrolled in the wood program at Iowa State and studied under Michael Chinn.

Benson said that his peculiar style evolved at RISD when he wrote his master's thesis on the futurist school. A glance at his work will confirm that the futurists are really into motion, dynamic paintings jazzy sculpture and, especially, the machine.  In fact, one of their radical slogans said: "A racing car is more beautiful than the winged victory of Samothrace!"

So, Benson distilled the motion from this short-lived and eventually political art revolt, applying the idea idea to his bent laminated panels.

Environmentalist bent

Along with a growing number of concerned craftsman, Benson seeks to conserve and protect the environment by using nontoxic finishes and species—saving veneers of exotic wood like purple heart and bubinga. He also uses crating material over again by having galleries return it, via United Parcel Service.

From Geneva he ships to Art Works in Santa Barbara, Calif., Kent Galleries and the Contemporary Craftsman in Santa Fe, Joanne Lyon/Susan Duval Gallery in Aspen, Colo., and the Northwestern Gallery of Fine Woodworking in Seattle, among others. While he doesn't show or sell his work at home (few locals can afford to spend $2,000 on a plant stand) visitors are welcome. The studio is a working shop, not much to look at, but busy. While work on the house is going on, the aesthetics are in the cellar; but he has installed a dust removal system, upgraded the wiring and hung ample lighting fixtures.

The Midwest is in his style of speaking, somewhat Clintonesque, and in his easygoing manner.  WEOS, the campus FM station keeps him company during a 10-hour day.

Inlay on curves

"For the past several years," Benson said, "I have been using bent-laminated panels in my work, as legs, cabinet sides, and doors. They have almost unlimited possibilities for shape, once they dry.

"I wanted to create more surface interest and variety with out just trying different finishes."  Hence, the process of inlaying on the curved surfaces, no small problem.

"My solution was to lay out and tape the outer veneer layer first, then glue it to one of the laminates (usually 1/8" bending birch) flat in the press, let this dry, then bend all the laminates together. This two-step method eliminates buckling and bubbling due to slight irregularities in the bending jig, blankets (flexible belts of wood and wire) and pressure application. Any small irregularities will transfer down to the lower layers out of sight."

But bending plywood has it's own difficulties, which Benson solves with trade tricks he's picked up over the years.

"When pressure is applied at once to several laminates in a curved form, the natural tendency is for the laminates to slide around in all directions as the pressure increases," Benson said.  "The trick is to get them to slide where you want, not from side to side or at angles, and to keep the inlays aligned on both sides of the panel."

To solve that problem Benson uses anchoring screws in a 3/4" border of waste material around his workpieces.

"A screw in the center of the border will allow the pressure to work out from the center of the panel to the ends," he said.

But Benson warned that the laminates should never be anchored in two places along one edge, because this prevents the layers from sliding by each other and will result in buckling.

Among his repertoire are the glass-topped hall table, also a coffee table, as well as the marble-topped plant stand and an occasional clock, all of which are always one-of-a-kind.

Benson spends one to two weeks on a piece. But sometimes he can turn out two in three weeks, depending on demand, prices, when the gallery commission is deductible, are actually quite reasonable. When he says he is in the lower range of prices paid by collectors, you get some idea of the company he is traveling in.

What impresses a visitor most is the patience, care and ultimate sure-handed skill that go into each unique product. Benson Furniture is not a production shop, however, but a rightly named studio.