Based in Winston-Salem, NC, Bruce Brad­ford is a furni­ture designer who is craft­ing unique works with an artis­tic and func­tional signif­i­cance. Inspired by mid-century Danish furni­ture, he likes to incor­po­rate sculp­tural elements into each piece, with the inten­tion of making them​“func­tional works of art”. Born in 1960 in Western Michi­gan, he obtained a BS in Pack­ag­ing Engi­neer­ing from Michi­gan State Univer­sity in 1982. He then moved to Winston Salem, NC in 1983 to work at RJ Reynolds Tobacco Inter­na­tional. He began his profes­sional wood­work­ing career in 1999 when he received his first commis­sion, a free stand­ing wooden spiral stair­case. In 2000 and 2001 he trav­eled to Ander­son Ranch Art Center in Colorado to attend classes led by Sam Maloof spark­ing his passion for chair making. In 2002 he left RJ Reynolds Tobacco Inter­na­tional and concen­trated full time on making and design­ing furni­ture. Over his career he has created over 225 pieces.

Find Bruce on the web: http://www.bradfordcustomfurni…

Rachel David is a Waynesville, NC based black­smith, sculp­tor, designer, and maker. Her metal­work prac­tice is holis­tic; encom­pass­ing art, furni­ture, archi­tec­tural elements, activism, collab­o­ra­tions, and garden­ing. The work focuses on social and envi­ron­men­tal justice, commu­nity, and commu­ni­ca­tion; analyz­ing the many layers of colo­niza­tion, restraints, and expec­ta­tions across bodies and land­scapes. She has exhib­ited work nation­ally and inter­na­tion­ally in solo and group exhi­bi­tions. Her work has been published in numer­ous books and maga­zines and is included in the collec­tions of the City of New Orleans, the Simone Benet­ton Foun­da­tion, and numer­ous private individuals.

Find Rachel on the web: http://​www​.redmetal​.net/

Our members are the reason The Furni­ture Society has thrived for 24 years and count­ing. We feel it’s impor­tant to spot­light those that have taken the time to fill out their profile pages and share their work with the community.

Based in Lilburn, GA, furni­ture maker Alan Harp was educated in Indus­trial Design at Georgia Tech and has been creat­ing custom pieces for over 20 years. Alan Harp Design strives to create that special piece based on the customer’s thoughts, ideas, and needs.

Find Alan on the web: http://​www​.alan​harpde​sign​.com/

Orig­i­nally from East Aurora, NY, Karen Ernst is a Profes­sor of Wood­work­ing / Furni­ture Design in the Art Depart­ment at Edin­boro Univer­sity of Penn­syl­va­nia. She received a BA in Studio Art from SUNY Geneseo and an MFA in Furni­ture Design from the Rhode Island School of Design and has over twenty years of wood­work­ing and design expe­ri­ence. The furni­ture and sculp­tural objects she designs and builds have been exhib­ited in numer­ous museums and galleries across the US and are included in many private collec­tions. Her work is featured in the Lark Books publi­ca­tions 500 Chairs, 500 Tables and 500 Cabinets.

Karen has been a member of the Furni­ture Soci­ety’s Board of Trustees since 2018 and currently serves as its Vice President. 

The furni­ture and sculp­tural objects Karen Ernst designs and builds draw inspi­ra­tion from natural shapes, textures, and land­scapes she has observed in her travels to many of the National Parks across the US. Whether it is the silhou­ette of a tree branch, an impres­sion left by a rock in the sand, or the surface of the ocean, she seeks to capture a bit of the beauty and magic present in our most unspoiled natural places.

Find Karen on the web: https://​www​.karen​ern​st​de​sign​.com

Joshua Enck is a sculp­tor, designer, drafts­man, and illus­tra­tor who teaches and main­tains an active studio prac­tice in Rochester, New York. He trained as an archi­tect and a furni­ture designer, receiv­ing his MFA in furni­ture design from the Rhode Island School of Design and his BSAS from the School of Archi­tec­ture at the Univer­sity of Illi­nois. He taught for ten years at RISD: drawing, three-dimen­­sional design, tech­ni­cal drawing, wood­work­ing, and metal­work­ing. He has also taught wood­work­ing at the Ander­son Ranch Arts Center, sculp­ture at Williams College, and drawing at the Univer­sity of Illi­nois and the Univer­sity of Rochester. Joshua has exhib­ited his artwork in solo shows at Simon Gallery and at the Univer­sity of Maine Museum of Art. His work is currently repre­sented by Space Gallery in Denver, Colorado and Jeff Soder­bergh Gallery in Well­fleet, Mass­a­chu­setts. He has been invited to partic­i­pate as a wood­work­ing and metal­work­ing artist in the Emma Inter­na­tional Collab­o­ra­tion and the Echo Lake Collab­o­ra­tion. The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, the Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston, and the Center for Art in Wood in Philadel­phia (Windgate ITE Resi­dency) have honored his work. Joshua recently spent five months in India as a Fulbright Nehru Scholar, research­ing tradi­tional metal­smithing and teach­ing at the Sushant School of Design.

Find Joshua on the web: https://​www​.joshuaenck​.com/

Meg Bye is a sculp­tor based in Seattle, WA. Her company, Knot & Burl Studios creates one of a kind, custom instal­la­tions that inter­act and enliven archi­tec­tural spaces includ­ing but not limited to restau­rants, profes­sional build­ings, and homes. 

Knot & Burl has an ongoing collec­tion of ethi­cally sourced and expertly created home objects. 

Knot & Burl addi­tion­ally has a network of artists capable of creat­ing working in a plural­ity of disci­plines which is why much of Bye’s work features multi-media components.

Find Meg on the web: http://​knotand​burl​stu​dios​.com/

Artie Reit­meyer is a Pitts­burgh native and currently lives in Sewick­ley, PA, where he main­tains a studio full time. He attended Indiana Univer­sity of Penn­syl­va­nia and received a B.F.A. Sculpture/​Furniture Design in 1989. He has been an active member of the Craftsmen’s Guild of Pitts­burgh since 1992.

“I choose to make furni­ture because of its inter­ac­tive quality. It is not meant solely for obser­va­tion as in a museum; rather, it is meant for the home, fitting into the lives of the people who use them. It is sculp­ture but it is sculp­ture we live with. I make furni­ture that is meant to be touched and used every day and by those means enhances our lives.”

Vivian Chiu is artist and designer working primar­ily in wood. She is a grad­u­ate of Colum­bia Univer­si­ty’s MFA program and the Rhode Island School of Design’s BFA program. An indi­vid­ual that likes to push herself mentally and phys­i­cally, she believes in the value of hard work, a philos­o­phy that drives many of her designs. Much of her work is a mixture of sculp­tural and func­tional, and shows her inter­est in the mate­ri­al­ity of wood. 

Daniel Pitts­ford is a crafts­man and artist based in Everett, WA. He has special­ized in writing instru­ments and fine desk acces­sories since 1996. Daniel received his train­ing from Dick Sing, Frank Klausz, Garrett Hack, David Marks, Kelly Mehler, and Yeung Chan. He works in domes­tic and exotic hard­woods and enjoys making intri­cate and finely detailed pieces that provide a quiet elegance. His work exhibits many style influ­ences and there is a constant search for design solu­tions to meet client commissions.

Born and raised in New York City, Sophie received her BFA in Sculp­ture from SUNY Purchase College, and her MFA in Furni­ture Design and Wood­work­ing from San Diego State Univer­sity. She has worked exten­sively as a metal fabri­ca­tor and welder for inde­pen­dent makers and busi­nesses across the country. Sophie completed a three-year resi­dency at the Appalachian Center for Craft and is currently the Visit­ing Assis­tant Profes­sor of Sculp­ture at Missis­sippi State University.

Find Sophie on the web: https://​sophieglenn​.com/

“I am a contem­po­rary​“func­tional art” artist who expresses his love of art through real-world objects. I concen­trate on furni­ture, light­ing and​“Nixie” tube clocks but have worked with sculp­ture as well. My designs most often are geomet­ric in nature where compli­ment­ing geomet­ric elements and forms provide inter­est and artis­tic merit. I accen­tu­ate the forms using differ­ent mate­ri­als, textures, and colors. My goal in every­thing I create is to give the work the highest degree of artis­tic merit that I can. It is about the creation of beauty.”

Find Charles on the web: http://​www​.vachead​.com/

I am an artist, wood­worker, and educa­tor living in Madison, WI, where I run the Wood Program at the Univer­sity of Wiscon­sin-Madison. I studied wood­work­ing & furni­ture design at Virginia Common­wealth Univer­sity in Rich­mond, VA. Found mate­ri­als, drawn and painted patterns, mech­a­nisms, hard­ware, and cabi­nets are my jam. I collect jars of old fasten­ers. I am always up for talking about wood nerd stuff!

Find Katie on the web: http://​www​.katiehud​nall​.com/

Conor Keeling is a Chicago based artist, designer, and maker. He creates sculp­tural objects and furni­ture that encour­age curios­ity and care. His pieces are often exper­i­men­tal and incor­po­rate bent-wood and stack lami­na­tion to produce organic forms.

Conor received a BFA in product design from Colum­bia College Chicago in 2017. After a few years working as a fabri­ca­tor, he started working inde­pen­dently out of a shared studio space in 2019, where he devel­ops custom furni­ture and objects. Recently, Conor began teach­ing wood­work­ing classes at CIADC.

“My work is informed by a passion for under­stand­ing the natural world and our connec­tion with it. I strive to make things that feel as if they continue to live and grow; as if they spon­ta­neously came into exis­tence through a will of their own. I think this impulse is why I was drawn to wood­work­ing because wood itself is a natural mate­r­ial that truly never ceases to be alive. In a subtle way, it is always in motion. I always try to capture this dynamic quality.”

Find Conor on the web: http://​www​.conor​keel​ing​.com/

Sarah Marriage lives and works in Balti­more, MD, where she is the founder and direc­tor of A Work­shop of Our Own, a non-profit educa­tional wood­shop created by and for women and gender non-confor­m­ing indi­vid­u­als, with a mission to provide train­ing, advo­cacy and oppor­tu­nity for people under­rep­re­sented by gender in the field of furni­ture making and wood­work­ing. Sarah studied archi­tec­ture at Prince­ton Univer­sity and fine wood­work­ing at The College of the Redwoods (now The Krenov School). She is a member of the board of trustees of The Furni­ture Society. She has been a visit­ing artist at Herron School of Art & Design, a studio fellow at the Center for Furni­ture Crafts­man­ship, and a John D Mineck furni­ture fellow. She has taught at The Krenov School, Penland School of Craft, Haystack Moun­tain School of Crafts, and Ander­son Ranch Arts Center. Sarah’s work has shown at galleries and trade shows across the US, includ­ing Dwell on Design (CA), ICFF (NY), the Amer­i­can Craft Council Show (MD), and Pritam & Eames Gallery (NY).

Find Sarah on the web: http://​sarah​mar​riage​.com/

David Fleming was a subsis­tence hunter living in the Alaskan wilder­ness 300 miles from the nearest road when he was offered the oppor­tu­nity to study with James Krenov (1984 – 86) at the College of the Redwoods in Cali­for­nia. He relo­cated to Arizona in 1993, where he set up shop making furni­ture and teach­ing hand tool wood­work­ing skills. He currently teaches at the South­west School of Wood­work­ing in addi­tion to offer­ing private instruc­tion. He joined The Furni­ture Society in 2000, served on the Board of Trustees from 2003 – 2006, and contin­ues to volun­teer on the Communications Committee.

Find David on the web: http://​www​.dfcab​i​net​maker​.com/

Inspired by nature and the envi­ron­ment, LiLi Jackson makes sustain­able work, frequently utiliz­ing wood, clay and mycelium. Respect­ful of the artisan tradi­tions she has inher­ited, she inno­vates within them, turning methods and mate­ri­als to new uses. With a bach­e­lor degree in global envi­ron­men­tal policy and a Master’s of indus­trial design, she works in the area in-between func­tion and use, with an eye to nature, space and context. Her funda­men­tal prin­ci­ple is​“make the world a better place.”

Find LiLi on the web: www​.LiLi​Jack​son​.com

Norman Pirollo is a furni­ture designer, maker, and educa­tor based in Ottawa, Ontario. He designs and makes contem­po­rary furni­ture and sculp­ture using tradi­tional tech­niques. He has authored several books, and his work has been featured in books and maga­zines in North America and inter­na­tion­ally. He is currently devel­op­ing a series of online woodworking courses. 

Find Norman on the web: www​.refined​edge​.com and www​.wood​skills​.com

Janice Smith has been design­ing and build­ing unique wood furni­ture for over 40 years. Based now in Philadel­phia, PA, her inter­est in furni­ture began when ​“Shop for Girls” was offered for the first time in high school. ​“I still love turning ideas into reality. I espe­cially enjoy playing with balance and asym­me­try to create a sense of move­ment in my designs.”

Find Janice on the web: https://​www​.janice​smith​fur​ni​ture​.com/

Joshua Torbick is a furni­ture artist and educa­tor in his final year as an MFA student at San Diego State Univer­sity in the Furni­ture Design program. He has a degree in Archi­tec­ture from the Univer­sity of Virginia and a BFA in Wood­work­ing and Sculp­ture from the Univer­sity of New Hampshire. 

Joshua’s furni­ture forms utilize curved elements of wood, steel and fabric, creat­ing unique pieces to explore the bound­aries of func­tion. His pieces range from organic to archi­tec­tural and provide comfort­able seating and semi-private spaces while chal­leng­ing our expec­ta­tions of body position.

Find Joshua on the web: http://joshuatorbickfurniture.…

Designer-maker Kelly Parker is is based in Parkville, Missouri, where she creates contem­po­rary studio furni­ture and sculp­ture. Formerly a biochemist, in 2009 she traded her corpo­rate hat for a wood­worker’s chapeau. She has taken numer­ous design and tech­nique classes at Ander­son Ranch Arts Center and the Marc Adams School of Woodworking. 

Kelly special­izes in using reclaimed, gifted or site-harvested lumber. She designs and creates one-of-a-kind and limited produc­tion pieces in her studio, often incor­po­rat­ing other mate­ri­als such as metal and glass. She also writes and teaches internationally.

Find Kelly on the web: https://​www​.wood​songstu​dio​.com/

Davis, CA-based designer/​maker Jonathan Parris studied at The Krenov School for two years before opening his own studio, called Full Tables Full Chairs, and more recently earning an MFA in Design from the Univer­sity of Cali­for­nia, Davis. Analyz­ing furni­ture as a social and struc­tural object set him on a path to research­ing and build­ing furni­ture in socially and relationally-oriented ways.

Find Jonathan on the web: http://​ft​-fc​.com/

Teresa Audet is an artist and furni­ture maker based in North­east Minneapo­lis. Audet holds a BFA in Furni­ture Design from the Minneapo­lis College of Art and Design and has studied at the Mount Fuji School of Fine Wood­work­ing in Yamanashi, Japan. She has been awarded several grants includ­ing two Artist Initia­tive Grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and an EFASO grant from the Furni­ture Society. She partic­i­pates in artist resi­den­cies and teaches at craft schools nation­wide. Audet will be an MFA candi­date at the Univer­sity of Wiscon­sin-Madison start­ing Fall of 2020.

Find Teresa on the web: https://​www​.tere​saaudet​.com/

Holly, Michi­gan-based designer/​maker and long-time Furni­ture Society member Chuck Shar­baugh earned a BFA from the Cran­brook Academy of Art, Bloom­field Hills, MI, in 1975. 

“My work has used the tradi­tional furni­ture form​“Cabinet on Stand” and more recently​“Game Table” as a vehi­cles to express the dissim­i­lar­ity that exists between the promi­nent exte­rior archi­tec­tural features of the furni­ture forms when first encoun­tered and the vibrant engag­ing images of the inte­rior façade found after opening the tops or doors.

The shapes and symbols used to embell­ish the exte­rior of the furni­ture forms have been inspired by the archi­tec­tural land­scape I’ve found along many of our highways…..industrial sites, wooden utility poles, elec­tri­cal towers and bridges are but a few. The parquetry images found on the doors serves to create a visual inter­est that will entice the viewer to move closer and open the doors to discover what’s inside.”

Find Chuck on the web: https://​www​.chuck​shar​baugh​.com/

Indiana, PA-based maker and educa­tor BA Harring­ton received her tradi­tional train­ing in the Cabinet and Furni­ture­mak­ing Program at the North Bennet Street School in Boston. After a decade of build­ing custom furni­ture, she returned to acad­e­mia and her studio art back­ground, grad­u­at­ing from the Univer­sity of Wiscon­sin-Madison with an MFA in wood and a Master’s Degree in Art History. She is currently Assis­tant Profes­sor of Wood­work­ing, and Co-direc­­tor of the Wood Center at Indiana Univer­sity of Penn­syl­va­nia (IUP).

Find BA on the web: http://​www​.bahar​ring​ton​.com/

Ted Blachly has been a wood­worker / furni­ture maker for over forty years. He became a juried member of The League of New Hamp­shire Crafts­man in 1989, and was also involved in the forma­tion of the Guild of NH Wood­work­ers. He is a long­time Furni­ture Society member. In 1995 he was an invited artist in the inau­gural exhi­bi­tion of the NH Furni­ture Masters Asso­ci­a­tion and has been an active member since the groups incep­tion. He works out of his studio in Warner, New Hampshire. 

Find Ted on the web: http://​www​.tedblachly​.com/

Soo Joo is an artist from Seoul and Prov­i­dence with a back­ground in furni­ture, fine art, and biology. She creates applic­a­ble methods to re-design our built envi­ron­ment. The goal of her prac­tice is to satisfy biophilia, the innate human need to feel visu­ally connected to the natural world. Soo recently completed her BFA in furni­ture design at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).

Find Soo Joo on the web: http://​www​.soojoo​-studio​.com/

Los Angeles-based deisigner-maker Todd Ouwe­hand finds inspi­ra­tion for his designs in archi­tec­ture, and is partic­u­larly intrigued by the arch and cantilever prin­ci­ples as applied to furni­ture forms. He enjoys the chal­lenge of combin­ing veneer with solid wood to produce contrast­ing patterns while main­tain­ing a consistent look.

Find Todd on the web: http://​www​.toddouwe​hand​.com/

Libby Schrum is a designer-maker based in Camden, Maine. She studied at the Center for Furni­ture Crafts­man­ship and earned an MFA in furni­ture design from RISD. Her furni­ture designs are inspired by the simplic­ity and func­tion of both the Early Amer­i­can antique furni­ture she grew up with and the Mid-Century Modern aesthetic she has come to appre­ci­ate. Libby devel­ops unique and artful design solu­tions that address func­tional requests; quiet and sophis­ti­cated objects that repre­sent the sensi­bil­i­ties and soul of the designer and equally satisfy the dreams and vision of the client.

Find Libby on the web: http://​www​.libbyschrum​.com/

Paul Tanaka is a self-taught designer-maker working and living in Ames, Iowa. After thirty-two years of prac­tic­ing law he retired in 2016 to expand his skills in design­ing and crafting furniture.

Paul’s design sensi­bil­ity derives from family and history — a combi­na­tion of mid-century modern, Pacific North­west craft furni­ture, and the Japanese aesthetic.

Mid-century modern prin­ci­ples of ratio­nal­ity, utility and func­tion remain core values. However, in the past several years recent inter­ests in carving, bending and light­ing design have resulted in greater freedom of form and a migra­tion to a broader sense of function.

Find Paul on the web: https://​www​.flickr​.com/​p​h​otos/…

Chelsea Witt is an artist living and working out of mid-coast Maine. Chelsea is a wood­worker, furni­ture maker, and illus­tra­tor.​After grad­u­at­ing from the Univer­sity of South Florida with a BFA they have worked and taken oppor­tu­ni­ties up and down the east coast seeking growth in furni­ture making specif­i­cally. Chelsea has worked for and or studied under artists such as Alexis Dold, Tyler Hays (BDDW), Christina Boy, Aaron Fedarko, and David Upfill-Brown. When it comes to wood­work­ing Chelsea focuses on bring­ing 2 dimen­sional shapes into the 3 dimen­sion, all the while putting the impor­tance onto the process and details. 

Currently Chelsea is working for the Center for Furni­ture Crafts­man­ship and will be teach­ing or assist­ing classes coming up there, as well as at Penland School of Crafts and Haystack Moun­tain school of Crafts.

Find Chelsea on the Web: http://​www​.chelseacari​nawitt​.com

Founded in 2000, Scott McGlas­son’s studio, Wood­sport, has been creat­ing fine furni­ture and light­ing pieces for resi­den­tial, corpo­rate, and hospi­tal­ity clients, mixing tradi­tional tech­niques with an exper­i­men­tal approach. His work has been exhib­ited at trade shows such as the Archi­tec­tural Digest Design Show and ICFF, and top flight craft fairs such as the Smith­son­ian Craft Show and Amer­i­can Craft Council Shows.

Find Scott on Insta­gram: @woodsport
Find Scott on the Web: https://​wood​sport​.net/

Jordan Poirier is a designer and maker study­ing for his Bach­e­lors of Craft and Design — furni­ture design, at Sheri­dan College, in Oakville Ontario. Prior to attend­ing Sheri­dan, Jordan worked as a luthier, build­ing and repair­ing elec­tric and acoustic guitars for multi­ple years. Jordan’s work primar­ily focuses on creat­ing lasting objects inspired by the natural mate­ri­als they are created from.

Find Jordan on Insta­gram: @jordanpoirierfurniture
Find Jordan on the Web: http://​www​.jordan​poiri​er​fur​ni​ture​.com

Audrey Assad is a designer currently study­ing furni­ture in the Craft & Design program at Sheri­dan College. Before pursu­ing an educa­tion in design, Audrey completed her Bach­e­lor of Fine Arts in paint­ing. Her back­ground as a painter contributes to her inter­est in explor­ing uncon­ven­tional furni­ture forms. Audrey is drawn to shapes, tech­niques and mate­ri­als that she feels relate to her body and is inter­ested in design­ing objects that reflect her physicality.

Find Audrey on Insta­gram: @audreyeassad
Find Audrey on the Web: http://​audreye​as​sad​.com/

David Lewis is a designer and maker currently study­ing at the Sheri­dan College Craft & Design program outside of Toronto. His work is informed by studies in archi­tec­ture and music and focuses on creat­ing bold forms with tech­ni­cal and gestural qual­i­ties. David hopes to start his own busi­ness to create small lines of furni­ture and also apply his skills to larger works such as public instal­la­tion and sculpture.

Gwynne Allan­ford a designer and maker from Toronto, currently enrolled in the Craft and Design program at Sheri­dan College. Her work is influ­enced by nostal­gia and merging tradi­tion­ally oppos­ing concepts and visual forms. She is inter­ested in exper­i­ment­ing with mate­ri­als and design processes that aren’t commonly repre­sented in furniture.

Find Gwynne on Insta­gram: @gcobjects

Sam Ladwig was a profes­sional musi­cian, video producer, hi-tech project manager, graphic designer and even an ice sculp­tor before receiv­ing an MFA in furni­ture design from the Herron School of Art and Design. Currently teach­ing and making work in Okla­homa, he contin­ues to be focused on the design and fabri­ca­tion of afford­able furni­ture. Learn more about Sam at samlad​wig​.com

Julie Morringello is and inde­pen­dent designer and maker. In 2011, she founded Modernmaine,a company focused on the creation of contem­po­rary artist-made light­ing. Julie’s work blends her knowl­edge of func­tional design and manu­fac­tur­ing processes with a love of mate­ri­als, self-expres­­sion and expert craft­man­ship. Every­thing at Modern­maine is created in her studio on Deer Isle and neces­sary compo­nents are sourced as close to home as possi­ble. Learn more about Julie at modern​maine​.com