Justin Nelson – Fernweh Woodworking
Interview
I was born in upstate New York, but grew up in Indiana. After college, I moved to the West Coast of the USA and have lived in Oregon since 2014.
I took years of classical piano lessons as a kid, but I was quite taken with jazz early on – I was intrigued by an art form that was impromptu, innately responsive, and interactive.
Very much no! I have a business degree from Purdue, and then I joined the Marine Corps for 4 years, including one deployment to Afghanistan where I worked closely with an Afghan Police Officer, coordinating training courses for his officers. After that, I joined a wildfire hotshot crew in the Pacific Northwest… all that to say, I very much stumbled into the art world, but I couldn’t be happier!
I started to be interested in woodworking, which after a few years led me to the world of design. I’ve always enjoyed thinking outside the box; in the world of cabinetry, that became more literal as I became interested in compound curves and organic shapes in wood.
I go through cycles of work that I really enjoy because it keeps things fresh, but I get to focus on one arena in a cycle. So for instance, when I’m starting a new collection design, I just let my creative curiosity drive me to try new things and ideas and concepts until a furniture design idea starts to emerge. Then I have to buckle down and try to wrestle the more ethereal idea of the concept into a rough shape. Then comes the very long and laborious process of building jigs and refining processes with a view towards small batch production. That’s all the design process; after that comes months and years of dialing in the production processes and refining our small shop efficiencies. Once we feel comfortable with where we’re at with a furniture collection and the shop woodworkers are handling all the production, I start the process over. For me, the design and the production of the design go hand-in-hand. I’m not really that interested in producing one-off art pieces; I enjoy the process of creating a furniture piece that is also able to be efficiently manufactured reliably, always in our own shop from start to finish. The furniture design itself is just a piece of the entire process.
My daughter joins me in the studio on our property for about half an hour, then I walk her to the bus stop down the road. I typically meet with my employees and discuss production calendar items to be sure we’re all on the same page with production timelines, shipping logistics, new orders, etc. Then it totally depends! Recently, most of my time has been taken up by onboarding new machines into the shop and creating new processes to increase efficiency; but other times I love to jump into the production process beside our woodworkers. I rarely get a full chunk of uninterrupted woodshop time, but I do really enjoy the days when I can settle into batch work on the lathe, for instance, making dozens of chair legs, and turn on a good audiobook!
Wood is such a beautiful but unforgiving material, as it wants to expand, contract, and do unexpected things. It constantly frustrates me, but I can’t imagine working primarily in any other medium. It’s just so alive; I’m obsessed with it.
Follow your passion! If it’s an artistic endeavor, don’t worry about creating something because it will sell; worry about creating something because you think it’s beautiful and has value. If you’re right about that, it will probably sell… but selling isn’t the main thing. Creating is the main thing.
I hope we are seeing a movement of people who want to make high-end batched furniture in the USA, not for the sake of nationalism, but because we have lost the joy and creativity that enter a human through the process of making. I’m thankful to be a part of that ongoing movement; we’re thankful to be right here, right now.
Mindfully made, inspired by the past, dedicated to the craft.
A couple of years back, we took a deep dive into dialing in the moisture content for certain joints in our chairs. After extensive testing of sample joints in both very dry and very humid environments, we now keep a “hot box” cabinet (about 105 degrees Fahrenheit and 9% RH) stocked with certain chair parts. When we’re ready to use them, we pull them out first thing in the morning, let them get to room temp, and then do all our joinery cuts and gluing to install them permanently; after that, they just continue to expand and naturally tighten those joints until they reach a normal relative moisture content! It’s been a super nerdy process to dial in factors like that in our furniture, and so fun and rewarding.
Sam Maloof was the first sculptural woodworker I was ever exposed to. I was immediately intrigued, and I love his passion, kindness, and work ethic. Then I discovered the Danes: Hans Wegner – everything he did was beautiful, and I really admire how he partnered with manufacturers to make his designs accessible without sacrificing quality. Although he didn’t produce the pieces himself, he had a deep understanding of the technical aspects needed for production. Finally, Finn Juhl – he had such playful, lavish curves and details in his furniture while avoiding any sort of overdone gaudiness.
Nick, from Hamilton Holmes in Toronto, is always one of my favorites. I met him first at the Architectural Digest show in 2019, and I admire how great he is at balancing running a full woodshop and still being incredibly creative, trying new materials, finishes, and styles.
Bern Chandley from Melbourne – his timeless take on the Windsor chair captivates me.
“Creating is the main thing.”
The Questions
(The Proust Questionnaire is a set of questions answered by the French writer Marcel Proust.
Other historical figures who have answered confession albums are Oscar Wilde,
Karl Marx, Arthur Conan Doyle, Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Cézanne…)
The end of a productive day making beautiful things, but I’m headed inside to be with my family.
To waste my life.
–
–
–
My work.
–
To have great commercial success. To clarify, I don’t think it’s a bad thing, it’s just not as important as our society makes it out to be.
–
–
“Phenomenal”
Play the Cello.
–
–
Duh… a chair… but which one?!
I’m pretty content with our little corner of rural central Oregon. Snowy mountains and high desert.
–
–
–
–
Willingness to join me for early morning diner breakfasts.
–
Ransom, from C.S. Lewis’ Cosmic Trilogy.
–
–
–
To be told, “You should go on SharkTank”.
–
–
–
“For me, the design and the production of the design go hand in hand.”
SHARE :
