Furniture-making is the continuation and culmination of my 25 year woodworking journey; leaving behind an extended tenure as an itinerant finish carpenter, a spatial troubleshooter. Furniture making allows me to apply similar innovative ingenuity into one-off designs.
As a designer, I've blended multiple styles into organic contemporary designs while holding to traditional nuances. Nurtured on the traditions of Queen Anne, Federal, and Mission style furniture designs, I have come to appreciate the simple, organic and often minimalist flow of Nature's natural 'live' edge of "slab" tabletops. With a contemporary rendering of the off-camber cabriole leg of Queen Ann traditions, I've established modern sensibilities without a compromising of warmth laden traditions; bridging the existing gap between genres and notions defined as "Craft" and "Fine" furniture.
In Following the Lines, I am introducing a new designs and fabrication processes allowing for the shaping of furniture components to follow the non-machined edge of the wood in its natural "slab" state. I refer to this as God's Line. Combining the use of custom Austrian-built machines with a collection of one-of-a-kind German Shaper Cutters, I am applying architectural profiles as an incorporation of structure with new aesthetic.
Following God's line is not without its difficulties. My fabrication processes, defined and driven by creating relevance, harmony and balance with the natural edge, holds to the rigid standards of solid wood construction and traditional joinery, including shouldered through-tenon with wedge, mortise & tenon and boxed finger jointing. As such forming linear structure, as we know it traditionally, into "form" requires a yielding to the makeup and characteristics of the material, without forcing my will on the wood.
Wood, in its natural state, defines and exemplifies perfection. Traditional man-made measures to shape and harness the wood to meet his demands edifies man, not the material. Consciously creating processes and designs that mimic and complement nature's perfection is at the core of my mission, ministry and vision. Insodoing, My aim is to elevate and redefine traditional notions of "live edge" design from "craft" to "fine" furniture.
In keeping with the need to recycle, most of my material, indigenous species to Bucks County Pa, have been milled from fallen trees; Black Walnut, quarter-sawn Oak, Cherry and Elm. Future acquisitions include responsibly harvested hardwoods from Amazonia, Brasil.