Greta

Greta lives, breathes and dreams design —
and she was born to unleash the natural
beauty of unlikely materials.

Greta hauls ash! …And oak and maple.

She can wield a blowtorch, bend metal with her bare hands, shape wood into natural — but not found in nature — shapes, plane a Paul Bunyan-sized log into flat, usable pieces, drive a forklift through tight spaces without breaking a sweat… And did we mention her moonwalk?

As a graduate of the School of Art Institute of Chicago and current artist in residence at the Crab Tree Farm in Lake Bluff, IL — Greta knows the beauty of function. She's made an art of it, and her art is changing the face of furniture.

She's a woodworker, a metal smith
and a creative blockbuster.

She's a mixed materials maven who specializes in naturally-fallen wood, salvaged concrete and rod steel. And Greta's material remix is what makes her art indefinable. It's a different way to look at the everyday, and it's the reason that establishments like the Solemn Oath Brewery in Naperville, IL, are commissioning her work.

She really lights up a room! Greta credits her
fearlessness to working on job sites with her
father and competitive horse riding.
(Yee-haw!)

It's the undeniable appeal of O.A.K.
(Otherwise known as one-of-a-kind.)

O.A.K. goes against the grain, and it gives mass produced commodities a run for their money. Just like Greta. She's 100% involved in every step of the process. For her handmade tables, shelves, and custom installments; she starts with naturally-fallen wood — most often from the forest that surrounds her studio — she drags it to her workspace, mills it, processes it, dries it herself — and then the real work of bringing the piece to life begins.

Greta trusts the features of the material
she's working with to the guide her
in creating each piece.

Looking for something more concrete? Check out her signature Coleman Stool. Inspired by a concrete patio project she was commissioned to work on in 2010, Greta loved how the properties of concrete and steel complimented each other. Elementary shapes like the triangle and circle merged with the most basic of materials to become one of her most highly sought after creations. She's since sold more than 2,000 of the beauties, each made with her own hands.

Anything but campy, the Coleman Stool
moniker comes from a Scottish family name,
as do the names for many of her pieces.

Now, she's developing a production process that more closely resembles a handmade assembly line than the current made-by-Greta's-hands-alone model she currently uses. This will give her the time she needs to do what she loves best… Her plan so far?

Greta's going to rekindle her love affair with the sketchbook, and she's going to find her next mixed material masterpiece. One, that like the Coleman Stool, is deserving of a family name.