LEXINGTON -- A Lexington company that manufactures high-end art equipment will send its biggest order to date to the Middle East next month.

Jeffrey L. Penny, president of Klopfenstein Art equipment, said 510 steel easels will soon be shipped to Abu Dhabi to be used in 15 newly built schools.

The small manufacturing company, which employs seven, has recently taken on numerous temporary workers to fill the order.

"We're building 50 easels a day," Penny said.

He was surprised to get a telephone call from Abu Dhabi, part of the United Arab Emirates, although the company's art equipment is sold all over the world -- mostly to universities.

"I got a call one day from one of the architects ... He said, 'I worked on Klopfenstein equipment when I was in college, and I recommended you guys,' " Penny said.

The easels are being produced from raw steel right inside the factory off Mill Street behind the Moose Lodge.

The company was originally founded by late brothers James and William Klopfenstein in Crestline.

In the mid-1950s, the brothers were students at The Ohio State University. They shared a creative bent, a natural engineering talent and a father who owned a machine and metal fabricating shop.

This unique combination of interests, talent and technology needed only a spark to flash into life as a small art equipment manufacturing company. That spark was to come from one of the brothers' art professors who one day remarked that, "If someone could develop a ruggedly constructed steel easel, built to last, and be simple yet versatile -- then they would have the makings of a successful business."

The brothers took this comment to heart and, working from their father's shop, they began building prototypes of a revolutionary steel art easel.

Each prototype was "classroom" tested and evaluated by art students and professors at Ohio State.

After much testing, modification and improvement, the brothers felt satisfied with their design and began the business of manufacturing and selling the most innovative and ultra-functional artist's easel ever conceived and rendered in rigid steel tubing, Penny said.

By December 1999, the brothers were ready for retirement. Penny purchased the operation after selling his plastics fabricating business and looking for a new challenge.

Early in 2000, Stan Butler joined the business as production manager and Penny's business partner. Today the two childhood friends continue to produce innovative, "built to last" art equipment products designed and manufactured especially for art professionals and art students.

They moved the business to Lexington about seven years ago, having outgrown the space in Crestline. Their product offerings include easels, drawing tables, drawing benches, taborets and various attachable accessories developed to provide extended functionality to their easels and art benches.

Using heavy-gauge steel tubing, the production crew forms, machines, welds, paints and assembles each product. The easels are sturdy, fold up and come 90 percent assembled, Penny said.

"Professionals love our equipment because it lasts forever, it's strong, it's rigid, versatile, it's simple," he said.

The easels headed to Abu Dhabi retail at $300 each, Penny said.

"This is our busiest time of year," he said. "We're working on all our other orders, too."

Penny said they get a lot of unsolicited letters and callers.

One caller said he ran over the easel in the garage with his truck and the only thing that broke on the easel was a handle.

"I feel like we're bringing some of the oil money back. We're doing our small part," Penny said.

Mansfield News Journal Jun. 29, 2011
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