Built in the Santa Fe style with log vigas and rounded parapets, their studio rests comfortably on a rise overlooking a stone studded wash with a panoramic view of mesquite covered hills to the west. Inside the workshop Luedtke and Mullins appear at ease amidst the imposing collection of machinery, tools and lamps in various stages of completion. The quintessential studio artist, they have always pursued their artistic visions outside the university or art school teaching systems, preferring to earn their living more precariously... designing, producing and marketing their work themselves.

Luedtke is an accomplished designer, furniture maker and wood turner with pieces featured in “The Art Of The Lathe” (Sterling Publishing). Mullins, also a woodworker, is primarily a fabric artist specializing in her own unique style of vibrantly hued contemporary quilted wall hangings, exhibited in galleries nationwide and included in the “Arizona Commission on the Arts” traveling exhibit featuring works of the new millennium. Together they have successfully earned their living as working artisans for the past twenty-five years.

Frank and Lin first met in Racine, Wisconsin during the psychedelic sixties. Desiring a more rural lifestyle, they soon relocated to Door County, Wisconsin an island/peninsula in Lake Michigan known for its active arts community and stunning natural beauty. In addition to managing a private bison preserve and building their own home, they founded Franklin Woods Studio/Gallery, which provided a showroom for the line of contemporary wood furniture and home accessories that they designed and produced for ten years. In 1997, seeking new challenges, fresh inspirations and a warmer climate they moved to Arizona.

Clearly delighted with their newly finished studio and high desert surroundings they are currently working on what they view as their most exciting collaboration to date: creating a series of outrageously colorful, one-of-a-kind lamps which combine Luedtke’s wood turning and design skills with Mullins’ flare for color and proportion.  Luedtke cites Dr. Seuss, Dude Lebowski and Flash Gordon as the inspirations behind their latest pieces. Viewing their lamps...it’s certainly a possibility to be considered.