Featured Member: Sean Mckenzie

We talked with Sean to hear more about his back­ground and inter­ests within the furniture field.

Tell us a little about your­self — where you’re based and how you got started making furniture.

I am currently based out of South Carolina, I spent many years in Florida raising my
daugh­ter but after she grad­u­ated I knew I needed a change of pace. So, I decided to move to a small town to start a passion project, restor­ing a 200 year old home. Wood­work­ing is what I always knew I wanted to do. It is where I find peace and allow my creativ­ity to flow. My love for it began in my high school shop class where I first started making furni­ture. After grad­u­a­tion, I was able to appren­tice with a master carpen­ter named Art Carpen­ter in Bolinas, Cali­for­nia. When I look back to that time, I’m so grate­ful that I was able to learn from a true and passion­ate artist. Among many things, he taught me chair making and steam bending, tech­niques I still use today, for example in the Wish­bone Chairs and my Wave Chairs. His way of hands-on teach­ing is also some­thing I imple­ment when working with apprentices.

What inspires your work? Who are some of your inspi­ra­tions for furniture making?

I would say my biggest influ­ences and what shapes my work are West Coast design and
organic flow. Nature has a way of connect­ing in such a profound yet effort­less way, the roots of a tree are connected to the ground that surrounds it and courses upward to the leaves that flow at the very top, through the branches and even to the moss that hangs from it, every­thing flows beau­ti­fully. I try to recre­ate that with my work by creat­ing pieces that flow together.

What does being a member of The Furni­ture Society mean to you?

During my time in Florida, I opened my own gallery. I was lucky enough to find myself
among so many other talented artist, of all sorts: painters, ceram­i­cists, metal workers, chalk artists. We were able to create a commu­nity and even teamed up with other local busi­nesses to do Art Walk. Being among other creatives, has always inspired me and I appre­ci­ate oppor­tu­ni­ties to collab­o­rate with other artists. I see that same sense of commu­nity with the Furni­ture Society. It has allowed me to see what other furni­ture makers are doing and read about their creative processes. I am honored to be selected as a featured member and hopeful that other creators will reach out follow­ing this opportunity.

Tell us about your preferred way of connect­ing with clients and customers.

I am grate­ful to say many of my clients are refer­rals from past content customers. I have also always enjoyed meeting clients at shows, some times I will hide my name tag so I can see and listen to peoples’ unfil­tered responses. Specif­i­cally, I like to do this with my piece called Voting Booth, and inter­est­ingly enough have found that people from both sides of the polit­i­cal spec­trum agree with its depic­tion. I have had pieces featured in the Florida CraftArt Gallery, the Florida State Fair Furni­ture Compe­ti­tion, Rooted Contem­po­rary Studio Furni­ture book, among other shows and maga­zines; most currently, I have work in The Grove Wood Gallery in Asheville NC, located next to the histor­i­cal Grove Park Inn. I am always looking for galleries to display my work in and hope to be a part of more books.

Do you have a specific joinery tech­nique, favorite tool, or favorite wood that you like? Why? 

For joinery, I like to do machine dove­tails. I prefer trough dove­tails because they allow
move­ment in solid wood case work. My favorite tool is a $2 Stanley 6” metal rule great for wiping glue out of corners and it measures as well, I use it all the time.

Check out Sean’s profile page and website