| The world of interior design is now becoming | | | | down over generations. |
| increasingly cluttered by reproduction furniture in a wide | | | | Reproduction furniture is fine from a distance although |
| range of styles much of it shoddily produced in China | | | | at the cheaper end of the market it just doesn't look |
| and the far east and some of it really quite good. All to | | | | right. But look closely at the way the finsh, the way |
| satisfy the unquenchable thirst of western consumer | | | | drawers are jointed - is there hand dovetailing? Do the |
| culture with the attendant environmental costs of mass | | | | shelves use handcarved dog tooth racking? How are |
| manufacture, carbon intensive shipping and cheap third | | | | the carvings made and applied? How does it hold |
| world labor. It's a shame because it makes it that much | | | | together as a piece overall - does it have the essential |
| harder for real local craftsmen to make ends meet - | | | | 'unity of being' that all great furniture has? |
| there's something very special about furniture that has | | | | A great piece of furniture is so much more than the |
| been lovingly coaxed from a beautiful piece of well | | | | sum of its parts - it's the way it is put together and the |
| dried timber - honed, carved and polished to perfection. | | | | feeling that is put into it - something that cant be hurried |
| It takes years to perfect the kind of skill that can | | | | - and there are no short cuts for handshaping and |
| create graceful curves and sweeping arches by hand | | | | burnishing. |
| - something a machine can replicate but never match. | | | | Again this jars with todays ' I want it now ' mentality |
| Only a human hand can create that extra mojo that | | | | where no-one is prepared to wait for anything and |
| you find in something made with love and attention to | | | | expect to just pluck it off a shelf. That's fine but what |
| detail that works with the natural anomalies of wood | | | | you gain in instant choice you lose in the quality of the |
| to create beauty- that's why antique pieces continue | | | | final product. Again looking at the interior design market |
| to command a strong following - from people who | | | | as a whole, there is so much 'instant redesign' based |
| appreciate artistry and feel of real wood. | | | | on looks popularized on TV - its become like the |
| Of course economics requires the presence of the | | | | fashion market - disposable styles changing so fast to |
| reproduction market serving customers in different | | | | drive the great god of consumerism and satisfying the |
| price ranges but I am continually surprised that even at | | | | empty soul of mammon that todays consumer seems |
| the extortionate prices at the high end of the market , | | | | to exhibit. Nothing built to last or built with care. Was it |
| companies make gaudy copies of antique furniture | | | | the Beatles who said "you cant hurry love"? - it's the |
| from veneered mdf and plywood with the lame | | | | same with real furniture and unless we support the |
| excuse that 'chippendale would have used mdf if it | | | | younger craftsmen, restorers, French polishers and the |
| had existed in his day'. I don't think so - sure inert wood | | | | like who are all too few, we will end up in a world |
| gives stability in our age of central heating but it's the | | | | where 'business' not 'craft' is all important and that |
| natural movement and vibe of real wood that we love | | | | would be so sad. |
| and creates something special that we want to hand | | | | |