Sparks fly for artist, furniture maker

BELLEVUE

His first tables were so crummy that the customer returned them and asked for a refund.

Today, about 15 years later, Ross Bendixen employs a staff of five in his shop on Bellevue's Old Main Street to keep up with the demand for his custom-made iron and steel furniture.

Early each morning, the 6-foot-3 Bendixen moves bar stools to the sidewalk outside his shop. That opens up enough space that customers can weave between bed frames and tables in Ross & Co.'s small showroom.

He runs an operation as tight as his showroom.

Unlike the case with typical custom furniture, the company tries to fill orders within two weeks. That's why he recently turned down a request from a dealer in England who wanted to carry his tables, chairs and beds.

"We can hardly supply our local retail clients," Bendixen said. "I'm not sure what we can do for England."

Although it now accounts for about 80 percent of his business, Bendixen began making furniture as a sideline to his art career.

He specializes in metal sculptures.

His wall hangings of killer whales, herons and other Northwest icons are stark in their simplicity. Most of his work is in private homes, but last week Bendixen was finishing a heron sculpture for a park in Memphis.

His metalworking talents also are sought by designers and decorators. He created metal posts for stair railings to match an interior designer's drawings for the Banner Building at Western Avenue and Vine Street in Seattle. His furniture and wall sculptures have been featured in Street of Dreams homes.

Yet when he was growing up on the shores of Lake Sammamish during the 1950s and '60s, Bendixen didn't plan to be either an artist or a furniture maker.

He was passionate about things mechanical. After high school, he got a job welding boat trailers at a yacht basin on Lake Washington.

"I would go to work early and stay late to make things out of scrap metal," Bendixen said.

He considered it play. Others saw beauty in his creations and began buying them.

One weekend Bendixen borrowed his mother's station wagon, loaded his sculptures and and drove to Yakima for an art show. He sold some pieces but, more important, made connections with artists who told him about other shows.

By the time the Seattle economy soured in the early 1970s and Bendixen was laid off at the boat yard, he was an established artist with a workshop in his garage.

Today his early pieces are considered collectors' items.

"I've tried to buy back some early sculptures," Bendixen said. "But people won't part with them."

In the mid-1970s, he outgrew the garage and opened his store at 10220 Main St.

"I was still doing art fairs," he said. "But by 1995, it reached the point where the fairs were too much work to set up and take down. I had enough business here in the shop."

With a full staff, the company produces an average of three pieces a week.

Expansion began when his son, Rob, came to work with him in the early 1980s. Rob does free-form metal sculpture in addition to the furniture work.

Customers kept asking for furniture so Bendixen agreed to make a couple of tables. The first two were the ones the customer returned.

But he kept trying.

"I wanted a dining-room table at home," he said. "So we figured out how to make furniture."

The tricks include measuring everything perfectly so glass table tops fit without rocking. The staff learned to finish each edge to a glossy smoothness. The first attempts at painting were dreadful. Now Bendixen uses a paint that costs $100 a gallon, a price tag that still shocks him.

Prices for his furniture range from $300 and up for bar stools to a high of $2,400 for the more expensive bed designs. His sculptures start at $525.

The 52-year-old, who jokes that he is now old enough to give advice that no one wants, enjoys having his shop on Old Main Street. He's a history buff and likes being in the most historic part of Bellevue. He's proud that his relatives have been Eastsiders for decades.

"My family had the old gas station and house at Inglewood Hill on the east side of Lake Sammamish," Bendixen said.

He recently remodeled his uncle's old house on the property and looks forward to going home to putter in his garage, where he's tinkering with metal and learning about steam engines.

"It's my mechanical inclination again," Bendixen said. "I want to know how to make things."

Eastside Profile is an occasional feature of The Times Eastside edition. Got a suggestion on someone we should write about? Contact us via the addresses at the top of this page.

Sherry Grindeland's phone message number is 206-515-5633.

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Bendixen's art on Web

Ross Bendixen's furniture can be viewed at: www.nwscape.com/ross; his sculptures can be seen at: www.nwscape.com/sculpture.