Ben Rawlinson - Bespoke Furniture Maker at The Goodlife Centre

Описание: Ben Rawlinson is a maker of bespoke fine furniture. His workshop is within The Goodlife Centre and it’s always a pleasure to see him working on an upcoming project. He chooses the timber he will use based upon his knowledge and experience working with each wood.Everything Ben makes, he makes with the craftsmanship he has developed in the ten years since he finished his training.

Inside an elegant lidded box he has crafted of cherry and sycamore, he keeps specimens of timber for his own and a client’s consideration. By keeping them in the dark, he can preserve the fresh appearance that a new piece of furniture will have. Each small panel has the type of wood impressed into its spine. ‘Padauk’, ‘Purpleheart’, ‘Cedar’, ‘Iroko’

With a set of lettering punches, he marks one of them ‘Bog Oak’.

Bog wood, as its name implies, is dug from peat fields where the tree fell, six to seven thousand years ago. In England and Ireland, forests of oak, yew and pine grew where these bog lands are now today. The remains of those forests are found up to 6 metres deep in the bogs. Highly prized and rare, it’s a part fossilised wood- on its way to becoming Jet or coal, but unearthed as a dark tanninised wonder that is carefully dried and converted for use in furniture making. It is a finite resource -as it will take a while to produce any more.

As world forests diminish, the importance of using sustainable timber is part of the journey in the process of making a piece of furniture. Years ago, the front pages of Cabinet Making magazines would list the cargoes of exotic wood from across the Empire arriving at a port, and still today, sightings of imported exotic woods in a timber yard pass around the guitar making community when a large quantity becomes available.

Each timber has its own characteristics- not only in appearance but in its weight, density and response as it is worked. The refreshing and relaxing aroma of a softwood like pine as it is planed is a pleasure and evokes a walk in a wood or a fresh Christmas tree. Walnut is a rich and dark wood with a peppery scent. Open a box of good quality pencils and you can still smell the deliciousness of cedar. Sandalwood retains its aroma for years if you lightly scratch the wood’s surface. Sometimes a defect like a fungus or disease enhances the appearance as in ‘spalted’ beech or ‘burr’ elm. . The close grain in a hardwood often swirls and undulates, which is part of its charm and pattern, but also requires skill and patience as it is worked. One by one, a woodworker learns all the qualities of the timber they use and adjusts blades in planes or sharpens edges to compensate for the way the wood responds.

At the Goodlife Centre, we display samples of wood collected 40 years ago and donated to us. The names read like a list of extinct animals. Most are no longer available. 30 years ago, Honduran Mahogany was sold in most timber yards and used in woodwork departments in schools. It was used extensively for general shelving and pub counters.It was a beauty to work with. Illegal logging and its harmful environmental effects led to the species’ listing in 2003 by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES); the first time that a high-volume, high-value tree was listed.

Every wood has its place, and every maker has his favourite. I asked Ben for his.

‘American Walnut’

‘Why?’

‘It’s chocolaty goodness.’

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The Goodlife Centre is an independent learning space situated near Tate Modern, Central London. We offer practical boutique workshops in DIY, Home Maintenance, Decorating, Upholstery, Woodwork & Carpentry, Furniture Upcycling & Restoration and various traditional hand Crafts.

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