Custom Furniture Design and the Slow Furniture Movement

Are you concerned that cheap retail furniture, in price and quality, is eroding support for custom furniture design and traditional craftsmanship? If you’re familiar with CustomMade, you’re likely aware of CustomMade’s mission: spreading the custom word and bringing together artisans and consumers who understand the value of fine craftsmanship.  When we hear about others who share this vision, it’s a pleasure to spread the news.  When the news is from overseas, it also gives us (and our predominantly American audience) a chance to get a different perspective on the “wide world of custom making.”

Wood veneers from 13 distinctive tree species, including padauk for the oceans, make up this world map in marquetry by Neerly Obsessed. “No dyes or stains of any kind have been used,” writes artisan John Brickley. “These are 100 percent natural colors. Due to the intrinsic individuality of the wood, no two world maps are identical. Each map is as unique as it is gorgeous.” For your own custom world map or other map design in marquetry, contact Neerly Obsessed through CustomMade.com.

We’ve previously looked at the controversy over the term “Bespoke” in the United Kingdom.  This month, thanks to Emily Jenkinson’s article in The Independent, “Turning the Tables on Cheap Design,” we learn about the Slow Furniture Movement and the Lapaloosa website, both founded by journalist Melanie Cable-Alexander to promote British artisans and their craftsmanship.

Emily writes that Melanie was inspired by the Slow Food Movement, with its message of “buying locally and sustainably for a better future,” and her experiences interviewing artisans who were “the last maker of their kind” in families “where generations had been practising these skills.”  The Lapaloosa website sells handmade furniture and crafts and helps connect customers with artisans in the UK who can turn a unique custom furniture design into reality.  The Slow Furniture Movement takes the message of the Slow Food Movement into the world of design.

According to Emily, Melanie hopes her projects can become a “true celebration of British culture while reminding people of how things are made and the skills required to make them.  As she says, ‘It is about choosing how to spend your money carefully and for the right thing.’”

Read Emily Jenkinson’s complete article here.

If you’re on this side of the pond, whether you want to celebrate your locality or rejoice in the whole wide world, come to CustomMade and find local custom makers near you or post your custom furniture design on our CustomMade “Get it Made” project board and have talented artisans interested in your idea contact you.

This navigational map by Wynia of Rhuby Architectural Glass “gives people a sense of place” when they walk into her customer’s office on the 33rd floor of the Rainier Tower in Seattle. This 14’ custom glass relight brightens the reception area and represents the customer’s view of Puget Sound. Wynia writes: “This piece is three layers deep with the navigational map on the reception side, the middle layer is sandblasted through screen on both sides creating a subtle moiré effect. The layer on his office side is treated like an antique map complete with compass rose and old ships.” Do you love antique maps? So does Wynia. Contact Rhuby Architectural Glass through CustomMade.com.