The no-thing of furniture design - or is it of life?

Written By Robin Wade

The no-thing of furniture design - or is it of life?

We are completing this beautiful little desk today, and I've been thoroughly enjoying it.

I'm never quite sure why/how one piece can be so amazing and the next one, almost identical, might not be so.

The no-thing of furniture design - or is it of life?

This desk is particularly thick.  It's fairly small (48" L).  Has a beautiful curved natural edge front and legs, all from the same slab of the oak tree.  (Once I get it turned right side up, and with it's hand rubbed oil finish, I'll post the completed table).

But, the whole in the leg is quite amazing, and seems to just make this piece.  Is it the spalted (partially rotten) wood surrounding the hole that is so intriguing, or the hole itself?  Reminds me of some asian teachings that ask if it's the "thing" or the "no thing" that is what we are searching for.  Not sure about in life, but in furniture design, or more specifically this little table that we've almost completed today, I feel like the answer was somewhere in the process of finding the tree a few years ago, to this coordinate in the journey it's taken from slabbing the tree, removing the bark with a draw knife, stacking it to dry for a few years, deliving it to the kiln, receiving it back from the kiln, receiving an order for the desk, finding that the thickness is too much, going ahead and building the beautiful desk anyway, taking this picture of this stage of the process, and posting it here on my blog.

So, if you know the answer, please share. . .

The no-thing of furniture design - or is it of life?

 

Robin Wade
Robin Wade Furniture is a celebration of nature—a melding of a forward thinking commitment to the environment and a quiet, harmonious design aesthetic. From his "slow studio" in North Alabama, award-winning wood artist Robin Wade designs and crafts one-of-a-kind handmade furniture. Years before a piece is ready to enter a client's home or a gallery, the process begins—naturally—with the tree. Sustainably harvested, each specimen of hardwood is flitch sawn into natural-edge wood slabs, debarked by hand with a draw knife, and stacked to dry, usually for years, before the final cure in the kiln. From here, Wade and his team use both hand and power tools to bring Wade's vision to life, and then finish each piece with a hand-rubbed oil blend. Each organic furniture creation by Robin Wade Furniture balances the raw, natural beauty of environmentally, locally sourced hardwoods with minimally invasive, clean lines—a juxtaposition Wade calls both rustic and modern. “I haven’t yet found a better artist than nature,” he says.
robinwadefurniture.com
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