Woodworking as an Art Form & a Philosophy
“Segol” is an ancient Hebrew word meaning “treasure, special, or unique”. This is our approach to the aesthetics and design of the work we create. We pursue furniture foremost as an art form, and behind any artistic craft are sets of disciplines, styles, inspiration, and philosophy.
Each piece we build is special, both in its appearance and its relationship with its owner. Each piece is entirely unique. We do not build for one client the same design as for another. Any matched sets are only copies within their ensemble, and any pieces with the same build are going to be of a small limited run, which are more of a “family” of pieces than a production of models. And in these limited run “families”, they are not production-run fabrications. Each one will be built one-at-a-time, with intimate attention to each.
Furniture as Art
There have always been two approaches to building furniture: those designed for function, practicality and accessibility; and those to evoke mood, beauty and reveal individual craftsmanship while serving their function purpose. These two schools of thought have coexisted for thousands of years, up to the present day. However, in the modern age, with the advent of more powerful, effective and accessible machine tools, the ease of building functional pieces has dramatically increased. This, alongside furniture’s apparent primary role of serving a useful function, has relegated furniture in the eyes of modern society, to often be void of artistic potential. Since furniture can be quickly built by machines to achieve its primary functional role, what need is there to achieve higher artistic aspirations–especially when it can be easily marketed that the clean lines and sparse appearance of mass production is the aesthetic aspiration we all want?
This is not to say that there is no place for mass-produced, easily accessible furniture. What does need to be addressed is that uniquely designed, individually crafted furniture does as much to bring beauty, personality and self-identity to a home as does a painting, fine architecture, or custom hardscaping and landscaping.
As an artistic medium, wood has incomparable potential. Not only can flat boards be aligned to create dimensional space and surface facades, but it can also be sculpted, bent and cut to create an infinite array of shapes. The multitude of tree species available brings an abundance of beautiful earthy tones to a working palette, which can even be dyed other colors; and each tree brings one of the most distinct qualities of this medium into the artistic form: its grain pattern. Thus, wood is one of the best mediums of artistic expression to manifest the artificial and the natural in one. The grain is made by nature; the form is made by man.
As stated earlier, furniture as an artistic practice has existed for thousands of years, and we strive to continue that tradition of beauty and transcendence into the modern age.
Artistic Inspirations
Our furniture aspires towards sculpture. Thus, the influences in the artist’s work are not drawn from the traditional craft of furniture building. Nature, architecture, artwork, fashion and human physique are the chief concrete inspirations for design. Abstract inspirations include mythology, literature, human emotion.
Our Philosophy
MAN as the INDIVIDUAL
We believe that humanity is biologically inclined to admire and express their individual nature, as both outwardly and inwardly no two people are the same. There is an innate desire for people to possess objects and items that are uniquely “them”, and to have outward appearance and style that is in some way unique from others around them. Humanity is beautiful, and both the inward and outward traits of a person are the results of long and organic developments, sculpted over time with subtleties, nuances and complexities throughout a life.
Our approach to furniture is inspired partly by this appreciation for human individuality, and the course through which it develops. So our pieces are begun as a core fundamental idea, and are builty carefully and individualistically over time, seeking areas for both subtle and assertive unique features to be employed and displayed. We put our soul into each piece: pleasure, excitement; pain and frustration; and ultimately pride, appreciating the process and the outcome. We do not want to give a client a product–we want to give them the result of a journey, the passage of which can be found in each nuance of the piece. We want to give a piece that looks and feels like a life in itself, rather than that it was simply built to serve.
This approach is why we use hand tools primarily for our builds. Although machines help with grunt work like rough-cutting numerous boards to size, or processing boards to usable material–which by hand alone would take incredible amounts of time–there are many things, both subtle and conspicuous, that machines either cannot do, or if they can, it appears sterile, mechanical, and even counterfeit to human touch.
All aspects of our work is done with extensive hand-work to some level, but there are certain features that are never touched by a machine other than to clean them up. Or there are small handheld tools used for carving and shaping which require human finesse, practice and intuition to control them. Our joinery is cut exclusively with manual saws, chisels and files. Our drawers and doors are almost exclusively shaped with hand saws, chisels and push-planes. Our lathe-work is not done by CNC, but by careful hand-design and meticulously matching cuts to form like pieces. Carving is done by hand using chisels, files and small hand-held rotary cutters. Almost all ornamental, delicate contoured cuts (called fretwork) is done with specialty hand saws. Our edge joints between sides of boards are always achieved by the laborious tradition of meticulously planing them by hand. In all areas of the personality of a piece, machine tools are kept to a minimum, and they are never the finishing step in the formation of anything.
EASTERN INFLUENCE
In specific regard to joinery, we tend to favor the Asian disciplines–particularly Japanese influence–over the western traditions. Although western-style joinery is practical and effective, it is often stark, and pursues a balance of how to join wood together as quickly as possible while being as effective as that joint will allow. This results in joints that are often (though not always) flat, predictable, and often utilitarian or even unfinished-looking in appearance. The Asian disciplines of joinery focus on more complex cuts with more interlocking pieces and revealed surface area. Though this takes considerably more time, it yields stronger joints that are both intentionally and resultantly beautiful and stimulating to look at.
Though we utilize both styles in constructing our pieces, Asian-inspired joinery is more commonly employed.
We also value and employ the Eastern philosophies of natural harmony, balance and natural beauty.
MAN & NATURE
As well as celebrating humanity’s uniqueness of expression through our pieces, we also strive to show some balance of man and nature. This is why we often incorporate knots and other natural quirks of the wood into a piece, rather than scrapping those pieces due to “inconsistency”. It is also why we value wild grain patterns over exclusively straight grain, since nature is much more inclined to curves and unpredictability than it is to straight lines. And as humans are a being meant to be in harmony with nature, we are often inclined to deviate from rigid constructs that we find “too artificial and unnatural”.
As well, we strive to be as environmentally conscious as possible, while providing our clients pieces with modern dependability. Therefore, we hand-make as many components as we can from consciously recycled material, rather than purchasing them as prefabricated parts. To ensure quality, components that we do not have the skills to create well, such as small hinges or large sheet glass, would be bought. But larger hinges, metal brace-work, metal handles and hooks, wood dowels, door latches, etc. are made by us onsite by us using high-quality reclaimed material, or scrap stock from other projects/parts of the build. Waste of materials is kept to a bare minimum.
Wood shavings/chips are turned into compost, and any scrap wood of unusable quality is used to fuel fires, whether for heating or utility purposes.
As well, we strive to use more environmentally conscious finishes. In the world of finishing today, it is nearly impossible to avoid some environmental impact. However, we avoid as much as possible the use of petro-oil based stains and polyurethane finishes. Instead, we rely primarily on natural plant oils like linseed and tung oil for wood character enhancement, and primarily use shellac (a natural product) as a finish coat. Howbeit, in the modern age, it is nearly impossible to utilize the finishes and glues of pre-industrial civilization and bring pieces that meet the quality and longevity that the modern age is accustomed to.
When it comes to sourcing materials–from wood to glue to finish and more–we almost exclusively purchase from small local business. Glues, finishes, sandpaper, etc. are purchased from small businesses, many local to our community. The wood that we do not source and mill ourselves is purchased from independent mills that consciously source and harvest their trees.