FURNISHINGS : Artisans Put Their Visions Into Practice

In an artist’s eye, a bale of hay, old newspapers or piles of tarnished vintage pennies become the unlikely stuff of dreams--a bench for the horsewoman’s dressing room, a durable chair for a child, a coppery etagere for the hall.

But you can’t just build it and hope they will come.

In the real world of furniture design, the challenge is finding someone to share the vision and help make it--or better yet, buy it. And that’s where the annual International Contemporary Furniture Fair comes in.

This 6-year-old magnet of the avant-garde takes place each May, filling the halls of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center with inventiveness and often beauty--like delicate waxed tissue-paper lampshades imprinted with leaves and imported from England.

An estimated 11,000 visitors inspected the works of 400 exhibitors--from the Charles Eames chairs of design giant Herman Miller and the sophisticated chic of Leland International’s industrial stack chairs to curiosities made by struggling youngsters seeking their first glimmer of recognition.

Architects and interior decorators go looking for new sources of custom design; manufacturers keep an eye out for new designers. Department-store window dressers and TV stylists show up to hunt for props.

Among the reasons for enthusiasm were a chaise of recycled paper bricks by a French group, Arrgh, whose works are being launched in this country by the Landon Gallery in New York. Bowls, tables and an etagere made of vintage pennies attached end-to-end to a steel frame were the pride of Tom Sachs of Allied Cultural Prosthetics, who said he pays suppliers 2 1/2 cents for each penny.

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New Yorker Gaston Marticorena was chosen new designer of the year. Now 25, he has made his own lighting fixtures for three years and designed furniture for two, including a see-through chair stuffed with confetti and upholstered in clear plastic and a hay bale on metal legs slipcovered in clear vinyl.

“I thought that my things would be too funky for the average interior designer or architect,” he said afterward, “but I didn’t get any negative reaction. Everyone understood it. People would . . . start smiling and laughing.”

He’s off to Italy in three weeks to look for a manufacturer. “I would like to work in this country, but it seems like it’s impossible,” he said.

Cedric Williams, 30, a fashion designer, turned to furniture two years ago, forming a company called Gourmade. “I think furniture will be the fashion for the 1990s,” he explains.

Williams attracted attention from the start with a black-vinyl chair that was clearly a spoof on Chanel. The back was shaped like a large No. 5. This year, he showed tiny end tables covered with large, colorful polka dots.

The excitement of being discovered can be tempered by the risk of losing an idea to a competitor. “The good thing is that everybody sees it; the bad thing is that everybody sees it,” said Michael McDonough, an architect and design writer in New York who was careful to have a patent pending on the recycled-paper kiddie furniture he exhibited under the name Eco-sTuff!

McDonough incorporated alphabet letters and other playful shapes into chairs and tables made of Homosote. They are designed to be assembled, painted, drawn on and otherwise personalized by their small owners. “I like the blank-slate thing,” he explained.

Henner Kuckuck’s fiery “Red Chair” was designed more for an adult playroom. With its skinny, elongated back, tubular arms and pointy leather headrest, it looks set for takeoff on some whimsical journey. Kuckuck, 54, a jovial German-born sculptor turned furniture designer, works on commissions through Nanna Design in Long Island City.

He won awards for an earlier chair, which could be collapsed like a big black bag when not in use, and survives on private clients (no celebrities), he says. “It’s tough. The more avant-garde your design is, the tougher it is. So I have a tough time.”

But before turning to furniture, he was an artist, also not an easy calling.

Tina and Francesco Gianesini, two industrial designers in New York, both 26, were uncertain about their prospects at the fair. Going by the name G Design, they set a goal of finding a manufacturer for their first collection of wicker, metal and velvet furniture. They succeeded on the second day. A Utah company, Directions, has taken on their designs and intends to get them to market by October.