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Why I became a furniture Maker

Writer's picture: darrennaftaldarrennaftal

Last year (2020) I was a student at the Sturt School for Wood, renowned as the best woodworking school in the country. 40 to 60 applicants each year, apply for just 12 places. The application process requires a statement of 'Why you want to be a student at Sturt', together with a folio of furniture you've made to date. If you are deemed a potential candidate, you are invited in for an interview, to determine if you will be offered a place.


So what brought about my decision to leave my career as an architect, to became a maker? This is best described in my application to Sturt....

Why I want to be a student at The Sturt School for Wood.


Amongst my greatest memories as a child, was time spent in my grandfather’s shed. It looked like something relocated from a shanty town. Random pieces of salvaged corrugated iron slapped together made a space big enough to house bits of metal and wood he’d found, “that might come in use someday”; to one side a little workshop. The homemade work bench always had a few tools scattered across it, whilst the many others hung on the walls. I would spend hours in there, playing with his tools, or just watching him create.


My grandfather was a carpenter, and he had a huge impact on my life. I marvelled at the kitchen he built himself. In particular two cupboards doors that hid a secret. Pull on the handle to open one and instead it was a chair on wheels that would roll out. What looked like a wide drawer above was a little table that would roll out too. There was a proper table and chairs in the next room, but who wants to eat at one of those? He and I would eat breakfast together on the secret table and chairs, everyone else at the main table… My time spent in his shed, sparked in me a fire: that the joy is in the making.


However my call to working with wood was not yet ready to be realised. At age 10, my dream of becoming an architect was born. My father arrived home and unrolled before us, plans for our new house. I was captivated! From that day on my determination to become an architect never wavered. 17 years later that dream was realised.


Keen to see my own designs come to life, with just four years of experience post university, I took the big step of starting my own practice. I said to myself “I’ll give it a go for 6 months and see what happens”. 6 months became 18 years of running my practice. I worked as a sole practitioner, which gave me the opportunity to truly connect with my clients, designing for them, whilst allowing me to explore my love of design, detailing and documentation.


This is where the story twists. Cue dramatic music… This year (2019) I decided to close my architecture practice. For several years I grew ever more disheartened with the world of architecture. Being asked to create ever bigger homes, my pleas for small, efficient homes, where the quality of space means more than the quantity, went unheard. Design had become something that got in the way of “resale value” and profit margins. After years of denial, I had come to lament, that being an architect was no longer about creating people’s homes, but rather their wealth. This is no longer aligned with the values I hold dear to my heart. I want to leave behind quality work that will be passed down through generations. I refuse to contribute or take part in a disposable culture.


It also took me a long time to see that something else had also been missing - I missed that which I discovered about myself through my grandfather - the joy of making. At university I made the choice to not touch a computer. Instead I was the only student who undertook the whole 5 year architecture degree, drafting every project by hand. After hours, I paid my way through university working as a professional architectural model maker for large firms in the city.


Another telling part to my university story, was how every page of my lecture notes, quickly diverted from the topic being presented to us. With only a few lines written on my page, I’d soon be tempted by the blank space below. The listening would stop and the sketching would start. Not buildings however, when it came to lecture time, my imagination turned to furniture. Page after page of sketches, chairs, lamps, tables etc.

It was in 2014, a further 20 years since those first furniture designs appeared in my lecture books, that this passion still burning in my head and heart could no longer be contained. I looked into furniture making courses.


I began one class a week at The Melbourne Guild of Fine Woodworking. From the first class, it was pure heaven. As an architect, I hand my drawings off for someone else to make. In making furniture, my love of design is reunited with my love of making with my hands. Thoughts returned to my grandfather’s workshop, standing in this one 30 years later… I’d found my way home.


Since that day I have not been able to get out of my head, the thought that I want to be a furniture maker. It’s been in me for decades and in my blood for generations.


Whilst I have adored every moment at The Guild, 3 hours a week, and of that, perhaps 30 minutes a week contact time with the teacher, will only ever mean woodwork will remain a hobby. I no longer want to be dependent on a teacher to be told every next step in order to make my creations. I want to have the know how, to be able to create with my hands, that which is in my head. It’s from there I feel most connected to my heart.


I no longer want to be separated from the making of my ideas as it is being an architect. I’m a designer, I’m also a maker.


I no longer want my days spent staring at a computer screen.


I miss using my hands.


I want to leave behind creations that will be handed down through generations. I'm tired of seeing the mass produced, poor quality that ends up on our nature strips.


I want to be a furniture maker. Crafting wood into pieces of practical beauty. I hope you will consider teaching me, to do so.

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Darren Naftal Fine Furniture
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