Something that has always been a deep interest of mine, and a reason why I’ve pursued furniture/ architecture/ interior design is the psychological relationship between people and the objects and spaces they spend their time interacting with. How a space can be directly r
elated to people’s happiness, energy, and even behavioral patterns. With respect to furniture, It is a big reason I care so much about having a very smooth, soft, and polished finish on my pieces, with soft corners and interesting notches and crevices. I want people to be drawn to touch the furniture I make and enter into an active interaction with it because the more we do this, the more we change our relationship with the objects and spaces in the world around us.
Another topic I care about is sort of a combination of a few things that fall under the category of sustainability. 1. Unless I receive it as a gift, or somebody is throwing it out, I never use any tropical hardwoods in my work, instead I use north American hardwood
s like Oak, Cherry, Maple, and Walnut because the places those come from are more often much more sustainably harvested and are not responsible for destruction of the rainforests and inhumane labor practices. 2. I’ve done a decent amount of research in school on sustainable forestry practices and think that’s something we could look further into or talk about (especially if we do a project where wood is a key component at some point).
I have a ton of knowledge about furniture making techniques, so there’s always a possibility to do a “how it’s made” sort of series going through fabrication methods for wood joinery, veneering (which is actually an ancient practice that creates some of the finest furniture in the world but has been given a bad name by cheaply made veneered modern furniture), wood bending/ lamination, properties of wood and considerations t
hat have to be made when designing with wood, etc etc. People seem to like getting insight into little snippets of the nitty gritty of craftsmanship.