Paul Schürch
Media: Furniture, Wood
My path as a furniture maker started when I was young, after moving to Europe in order to search out and learn skills from world renowned masters of the wood trades. During my different apprenticeships, my teachers noted my aptitude for solving esthetic and mechanical issues, thinking five steps ahead, and the ability to keep the broad picture in mind while doing the fine detail work. So began my journey to become a master furniture maker.
Complex furniture projects seem to be the ones that find me, highly detailed, usually different, and mechanically challenging. It seems to require a combination of old world craftsmanship, contemporary imagery, modern technology and materials, thinking outside the box, and proper tooling with the right hand skills to accomplish it. This training I received in Church Organ building gave me structure, materials knowledge, and a sense of historical style and mechanical design. My English apprenticeship in boat building gave me the curves in working wood, metal and plastic in new ways. Furniture restoration in Europe gave me the knowledge of what lasts over time, and In Italy; I was inspired to follow my passion for creating artistic surface decoration using wood, metal, and stone.
I believe these skills I’ve acquired over the years prepared me for the challenges of designing and building complex functional pieces or art. This exposure to the trades also gave me the ability to supervise the building of larger work with teams of skilled craftsmen and designers in creating high-end installations. I enjoy working with clients designing and building art that appears in corporate,public and private settings, and have completed over 400 projects to date. I have become more interested in prototyping dynamic, interactive systems or transforming furniture, which can involve several different trades and specialty shops. The possibilities are ever evolving, and I am excited about the direction this profession is taking me in creating work that may become ‘Antiques of the Future’ some day.
http://veneerartist.com/
