Q&A with Waywood
Location: Chadlington, Oxfordshire
Discipline: Furniture designers and makers
- Biography:
As furniture designers, we are inevitably influenced by contemporary aesthetics but we are not distracted by passing fashion. The warmth and infinitely variable nature of wood inspires us to treat it with respect, rather than design in a way that ignores the material we are working with. We think a blend of subtlety and character is key to enduring design.
We have a long and celebrated reputation for innovative design. Everything we make is unique. The design process can involve the client as much or as little as they like, and the result is a collaborative process between us.
Creative practice/process:
Waywood combines the varied skills of three furniture designers/makers, with backgrounds and influences as diverse as fine art, cabinetmaking, boat building, computer-aided design and CAD/CAM manufacturing. We are experienced and time served craftsmen through and through, but have always experimented with our craft. Somewhere along the way we got interested in digital CAD/CAM technology too, and the result is a workshop with one foot firmly rooted in craft traditions, and one stepping out into the future.
We often approach problem solving from completely different directions. Our collaborative design process and approach to problem solving allow a wealth of options for design and making solutions.
Equally the role of designer might be given to the person who is best suited to the client’s brief, but the resources available to us from our varied backgrounds allow a huge diversity of influences and experience.
Influences and motivations:
Exquisite craftsmanship is integral to every piece we make and a basic requirement of the furniture maker in our workshop. All of our work, from the smallest box to the largest piece of fitted furniture is approached with the same care and attention to detail.
Our traditional training as craftsman is the foundation of decades of experience. In recent years we have built on this, investing both time and money in training and experimenting with CNC (computer numerical control) machinery and CAD (computer aided design) technology. It has enabled us to utilise new techniques and make an ever-increasing diverse range of work. We see it as a natural development from traditional craft skills, the old and the new working hand in hand to produce a melting pot of solutions to furniture making challenges.
Sustainability / environmental credentials:
To date we have planted approximately 11 thousand hardwood trees on our land – including oak, ash, cherry, walnut and maple. Our planting programme regenerates the woodland typical to our area and replaces, on a local scale, the types of wood we use.
We use almost entirely temperate hardwoods and, wherever possible, timber that has been produced sustainably or is derived from wind-blown dead or dying trees.
Over the years we have built up a network of contacts to help us source the best and most appropriate wood for each project.