Early Furniture 

  While teaching at an inner-city high school in New York during the 1960s, the following cradle was Dean's very first piece of serious woodworking. Exploring unique and sensual form was the concept, while properly putting together a complicated arrangement of sticks was the challenge. While this piece was successful at being unique, sensual and sturdy, it was a total failure for its intended use. By the time this piece was finished, the unfortunate child was active enough to squirm out and land on the floor. Since this embarrassing miscalculation, Dean Santner has dedicated the last 50-some years to combine style, quality woodcraft designs and reasonably sensible performance into everything he makes. This is some of Dean's early furniture work from the 1960's.