Thanks Tibi, this is a great subject and one that got me thinking good thoughts on the drive in to work this morning.
My first piece of furniture was a coffee table in oak with turned legs that I made in the woodwork class at school. Thinking back, the learning curve was pretty steep, first a bench hook, then a folding coat hanger in oak... then the coffee table with saddle joints and a top, rubbed together with warm rabbit glue that smelled lovely, sanding sealer and beeswax. 1976.
I carried that table on the train to interviews. It was quite sturdy.
Needless to say, my earliest inspiration came from my woodwork teacher, Mr Earnest Saunders. A quiet man, he wore a soft, brown dust coat, gold half moon spectacles and had worked with Edward Barnsley. I visited him at home many years later and his sitting room was populated with beautiful oak furniture he had made in that style.
Later, Makepeace, Peters, Krenov, Nakashima... Andrew Varah, there have been no shortage of incredible craftsmen to inspire and aspire to throughout my career.
Examples of furniture I like.
I loved Johny Grey's unfitted kitchen for Smallbone. I was a beautiful, radical departure from mainstream kitchen cabinetry and introduced the concept of craftsman made kitchen furniture to wealthy people. Which is always a good thing.
Andrew Vara's Collectors Cabinet. An incredibly technical piece with a nod to the age of the Imperial ebenistes.
And a jewellery box in eleven timbers with secret compartments and complex locking mechanisms.
