Andrew Muggleton Designs

The Robb Report Collection - A new breed of furniture makers whittles away at the competition

2008-10-15T22:10:03Z

Below is the latest Robb Report Collection issue featuring Furniture. It shows my Macassar Lotus bench, shown earlier this year in New York and also some wonderful works by other furniture Makers I have had the pleasure to meet and become friends with over the years. www.andrewmuggleton.com/press-robb.htm

Carving It Up
A new breed of furniture makers whittles away at the competition.

THERE IS A PURITY AND DELICACY about craftsman Mark Levin's Handel Leaf desk, which appears to have formed on its own from the oversize banana leaf that inspired it. The undulating cherry wood "foliage" that makes up the desktop gently rests on four sinuous legs bent upward like plant stalks reaching for nourishment from the sun. If you didn't know it was sculpted by Levin's severely calloused hands, you might think Mother Nature herself had created it. The entire desk seems to sway in the breeze; the detail is that precise.

"When people look at my woodwork they envision me with a chisel in hand, chipping away at the wood," says the amiable Levin, whose isolated Ilfeld studio sits on a 40-acre plot halfway between Santa Fe and Las Vegas, N.M. But fantasy quickly fades, he says, "and they become brokenhearted when they find out it's nothing like that." The desk-similar to Levin's side tables made to resemble oversize apples and coffee tables reminiscent of petrified tree roots-began its life as a six-inch-thick, 400-pound slab the furniture maker created from sandwiched layers of walnut wood. "Then I start sculpting it away with chain saws and automobile disk grinders," says Levin, who, early in his 30-year-plus career, discovered the relative ease by which a 16-grit disk grinder can eat at a chunk of wood. "It sort of blows it out fast," he says, noting that the subsequent sanding and finishing work is the most time-consuming and takes the biggest toll on his hands.

Michael Cullen prefers a more old fashioned approach to creating his hand-carved designs. From his workshop in Petaluma, Calif., the youthful craftsman uses a mallet and gouge on mahogany, walnut, and cherry wood, letting his hands and imagination guide each finished piece. The carvings on Cullen's chests, dressers, tables, and benches range from whimsical to the primitive, and most are drawn freeform, with what he refers to as "precise irregularities." Believing traditional handcrafted furniture to be "static and almost boring," Cullen started hand-carving to give his furniture more life. "The carving caught the light in a certain way so that the piece actually became more dynamic; a movement was created that gave the work a subtle playfulness," says Cullen, who calls his latest blanket chest design Spring Rain. "The circular pattern carved on the chest's surface is based on seeing rain impinging on puddles in front of my shop," he says.

Although Levin's and Cullen's work differ, both wood-carvers are among a relatively undiscovered talent pool of American furniture makers whose studio work-as opposed to mass produced pieces-is beginning to attract collectors and the attention of museum curators alike. The mounting recognition and appreciation for such individualistic design stems from the growing popularity of works by the likes of George Nakashima, Sam Maloof, Wendell Castle, and Wharton Esherick, among other pioneers, who founded the craft movement in the early 20th century.

What gives validation and intrinsic value to the work of these and other noteworthy next-generation craftspeople-among them partners Bonnie Bishop and J.M. Syron, Andrew Muggleton, Scott Grove, Rob Hare, Brad Smith, Peter Handler, Richard Judd, and even George Nakashima's own daughter, Mira-is a matter of opinion as well as personal style and taste. "It's generational," says Levin, noting that established furniture collectors often equate quality with the rarity and execution of the materials, especially exotic woods; while younger patrons are open to modern design that incorporate inexpensive materials like plastics and polymer clays applied in innovative ways. Nevertheless, most agree that the best new American designs share many of the attributes that made works by Nakashima, Maloof, and others so highly collectible, including ingenious forms ranging from primitive to ultramodern, a continuity of stellar craftsmanship, a unique combination and use of materials, and, more often than not, a sense of humor.

To wit, Catskills-based Michael Puryear's upholstered leather and Bubinga wood Barrow chair is sleek and elegant. But if you look closely you can see how it got its name; the chair was modeled after a wheelbarrow resting outside the furniture maker's studio. Torii Tansu, another of his designs, evokes a traditional Japanese tansu chest but seems to be floating on air. "It has no visible legs other than the supports that hold up the arches," says Puryear, whose early work recalls simple craft pieces by the late Wharton Esherick and the recently retired Jim Krenov, a Swedish furniture maker working in California since 1981.

Likewise, Scott Grove uses trompe I' oeil to create amusing and colorful mosaic table tops in the state of being uncovered by a "cloth" made of richly detailed hardwoods. Many critics have likened his work to Castle's earlier illusionary designs. However, Grove's furniture seems to possess a hidden meaning-not unlike American craft furniture itself-that goes much deeper than that of his predecessor. "For me it's about furniture design exposing its inner beauty, as well as that ahhh sensation someone gets when they see it," says the Rochester, N.Y.-based craftsman, whose commissioned pieces have more than tripled this year. Among his recent designs is a $30,000 seagrass mahogany bed with attached lacewood ribbon side tables, a $20,000 redwood burl, walnut, and bird's-eye maple dining table, as well as a $125,000 home entertainment center inlaid with silver and mother-of-pearl.

More than highly imaginative--like Pennsylvania-based Brad Smith's pitchfork chairs and shovel-handle benches or Wisconsin-based Richard Judd's bentwood ribbon chairs and tables-most of these offerings are also one-of-a-kind or limited editions. And like early craft pieces, many of the newer works employ inventive finishing techniques as well as unexpected manufacturing methods. For instance, Cullen coats his hand-carved chests, cabinets, and tables with milk paints-an old-world compound, reportedly used by ancient Egyptians, that is culled from milk proteins mixed with lime, clay, and earth pigments such as iron oxide and ochre. Environmentally safe and nontoxic, the paints give Cullen's furniture a colorful, aged appearance right off the workshop floor.

Another pair of American craft designers, Bonnie Bishoff and J,M. Syron, substitute tinted polymer clays (similar to PVC plastic pipe) in place of typical wood veneers over many of their hand-carved furniture pieces, including the couple's well-received Ilseboro series of chests, dressers, credenzas, and buffets. "We use a millifiori [meaning "thousands of flowers" in Italian] technique typically used in glass where multicolored canes, or loaves, are cut into slices and stretched. Then we butt them together like puzzle pieces or cut them into complex patterns like marquetry," says Bishoff, who, with husband and business partner Syron, develops the polymer clay veneers that enhance their woodcutting skills. "The result is highly detailed surface design with considerable depth and exuberant color."

For Andrew Muggleton's new Macassar collection-among the highlights of this year's International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF)-the furniture maker avoided traditional methods of joinery when crafting his Macassar ebony and stainless-steel chaises, benches, tables, and bar stools. Instead, the England-born, Colorado based Muggleton creates curvaceous veneered forms, such as his intriguing interlocking console tables that slip together like puzzle pieces and are held in place only by the forces of gravity. "The unique part is that I don't use any dovetail joints in the design. The two pieces simply fit into each other and the weight of the top curve locks them in place;' explains Muggleton. His sinuous designs which require a time consuming and complex process avoided by most furniture makers-are often inspired by the perfection he finds in nature. For instance, Muggleton's new Lotus bench, interpreted from a lotus blossom, is made of bent Macassar ebony, while his earlier designs were influenced by straw blowing in the wind, the movement of the sea, and pebbles on a beach. "It's the small stuff-leaves, fruit, flowers-that have a certain perfection to them versus something overwhelming, like a mountain range," adds Levin, noting how natural elements equally transform his work. Levin's shapely leaf desks and tables have earned the artist numerous design awards and the admiration of collectors, if not always that of curators and critics. Thankfully, he says, "collectors are very powerful. They hold berth over the curators." So when one of Levin's leaf tables was bought by a serious patron of the arts, it found its way into the Cincinnati Museum of Modern Art. "I've been very successful leveraging collectors to get me through the door," he says.

Andrew Muggleton, 888.886.1805, www.andrewmuggleton.com

ICFF New York - Macassar Collection - The reviews part 2

2008-10-15T22:01:29Z

I did promise I would post any further feedback or press from the ICFF show. Below is a piece shown in the Design International Magazine which covered design trends in Milan, New York, Paris and London just this last month. I hope you enjoy the read. www.andrewmuggleton.com/press-design-international.htm . I do also have some new press articles posted on my website too.

DESIGN TRENDS NEW YORK

DESIGN DEVOTEES DESCENDED ON THE CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS WHERE THE MOST INNOVATIVE DESIGN IDEAS ARE FIRST INTRODUCED AND EVENTUALLY BECOME WORLDWIDE SENSATIONS. NEW YORK LIVED UP TO HER REPUTATION, AS TRITE AS IT MAY SOUND, OF ALWAYS BEING ON THE CUTTING EDGE. WHETHER IT APPEALS TO YOU OR NOT, SOME FRAGMENT GERMINATED AT THESE SHOWS, WILL MAKE ITS WAY INTO MAINSTREAM DESIGN.

At this year's International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) there was something for everyone; furniture, lighting, and accessories. Established design houses showcased their ideas alongside a plethora of emerging artists, in many cases fresh from university.
This year, among established designers, particularly European ones, we can expect to see sleek, sexy, low-slung couches finished with sensual curves; morphing from hard to soft, very enticing in a sensual way. Italian design house Edra may have indulged in its fantasies with some of its designs, but they do lure you in, invite you to sit down, and then entrance you with their cleverness -the swirl-shaped 'Flap' sofa with individually adjustable back; a crinkley leather 'Sponge' arm chair that ages into a classic. Everything seems to be a little more luxurious, indulgent and '" sexy. Rugs made of incredibly soft alpaca, or silk and wool; Swarovski crystals embellishing accessories. At ICFF, Swarovski displayed murals, dotted with crystals, that cast a soft glow, twinkling when the lights are low and atmosphere is the intention. Chandeliers resemble more ice covered branches than light source; lyrical and light of hand. Flou continues to excel at producing fine Italian linens. It has introduced a soft tufted weave in its new line of bedspreads and injected a little novelty into classic design with 'Poem' - bed linen inscribed with words from literary classics. With the expertise of 30 years in the business - even producing its own mattresses - its convertible couch is a dream to sit on, not to mention sleep, and subscribes to this sensuous trend of morphing designs, where bed frames are not rigid lines but continue on and curve into upholstered shapes. Colours this season follow fashion trends in Milan, soft grey and violet, shades of cream; sophisticated and inviting.

If the ICFF is any indication, there appear to be two camps in our current design world. Established European designers continue to produce beautifully executed design, with a masterful hand in terms of colour, material and workmanship, creating a sense of luxury, while young designers, particularly young Americans, are experimenting with bright colours and taking sustainability to heart. Sustainable materials, eco-friendly, end-of-life issues for furniture, recycling, biodegradable; these are the American buzz words. Perhaps it is a reflection of the economic climate and the state of mind in America. We are seeing designers emerging from unlikely places, like Kansas and Colorado, areas of the country that deal first hand with environmental issues. Another theory being bandied about, albeit sotto voce, is that Americans have embraced sustainability because they are suffering from a guilty conscience. For years America has been a disposable, throw-away society. Unlike Europeans, Americans do not have a heritage that goes back centuries, and the tradition of collecting, preserving, is still a relatively new concept.

These efforts in creating socially conscious furniture appear to be baby steps, not always at the refined level of execution as their European counterparts, or at least not yet. But there is an enthusiasm that needs to be applauded. Small quantities of exotic wood combined with stainless steel in very sleek, clean designs, a mixture of hard versus soft, organic materials like rattan, abaca and bamboo, shapes derived from nature, lamp shades and screens punched out of wood veneer in patterns that create a flattering fragmented light, experimentation with single welding and simple construction - this is what is emerging from the new generation of designers. Expect to see chairs upholstered with leather that has been coloured using vegetable dyes not chemicals, combined with recyclable stainless steel or highly polished aluminium rather than heavy metals or production methods that emit gases into the environment. Yale School of Architecture presented an exquisite line of chairs created by students under the direction of designer Massimo Scolari, which displayed a consciousness that went beyond beauty and environmental issues. One chair, inspired by ancient Egyptian culture, has a carbon fibre seat designed to conform to the human body - an ingenious combination of ancient and ultra modern.

There also appears to be a resurgence of Asian-based designers, such as Filipino Kenneth Cobonpue, who are instilled with a French sensibility and inspired by the widely available natural materials of their countries. These two influences were particularly evident in the outdoor furniture on show at the Philippine Design exhibit - pieces which have a rhythm of their own, flowing organically into forms suggested by the natural materials of which they are made. The ICFF gave us, from a design perspective, a look at who we are today and a peek into what we can become in our future ... it's not such a bad view. Grace Trofa

ANDREW MUGGLETON

SHOWN FOR THE FIRST TIME AT ICFF, ANDREW MUGGLETON DESIGNS INNOVATIVE, HIGH QUALlTY MODERN FURNITURE BY BENDING AND SHAPING EXOTIC WOODS AND BLENDING THEM WITH OTHER MATERIALS SUCH AS METAL AND GLASS. THE LOOK OF AIR-BRUSHED STAINLESS STEEL IS SOFTENED WITH THE USE OF LEATHER IN NATURAL SHADES. MACASSAR EBONY IS BOOK MATCHED SO THAT THE PATTERN OF THE GRAIN FLOWS AROUND THE PIECE. TABLES WITHOUT TRADITIONAL LEGS OR JOINEY ARE BOTH SCULPTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL. FORMERLY A DESIGN ENGINEER FOR FORD IN LONDON, HE MOVED TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS OF COLORADO EIGHT YEARS AGO TO PURSUE HIS PASSION AND CREATE CLASSIC YET CONTEMPORARY FURNITURE.

tel:+ 1 7202260114 web: www.andrewmuggleton.com

ICFF New York - Macassar Collection - The reviews part 1

2008-05-28T20:29:29Z

It has been just a week since the ICFF show in New York and already there have been some great reviews on the Macassar Collection. I thought I would Google the show to see what is being said and have noticed some relevant Blogs which are listed below. I will be posting any of these reviews/blogs when they come in over the next month or so. I will also let you know of which magazines my new work has been published in as they come out.

http://3rings.designerpages.com/2008/05/22/at-icff-muggletons-macassar-collection/

At ICFF: Muggleton’s Macassar Collection

By Joseph Starr on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

Macassar Collection. Designed by Andrew Muggleton Furniture and Design.

In more ways than one, Colorado is so very far from New York. We out here in the vast terrain of the west tend to relish our wide open spaces. We embrace the horizontal, the endless expanse of landscape, the swaths of sky and dirt that confound peripheral vision.

Whereas New York—a city of skyscrapers and manufactured shade, of steel and glass, of upended horizons and upturned heads—gleans much of its imaginative aesthetic from verticality. It should be an interesting intersection of sorts, then, when Andrew Muggleton Furniture and Design plys its wares at ICFF this weekend. From the burgeoning and far-flung plains hamlet of Longmont, Colorado, Mr. Muggleton “creates and manufactures innovative, high-quality modern and contemporary furniture by bending and shaping exotic woods and blending other materials such as metal and glass to achieve the desired concept.”

All of his pieces embrace curvilinearity—the soothing circle, the exotic ellipse, the puzzling parabola—in accord with his platonic penchant for natural forms: “Everything in nature is curved, from the smooth pebbles on a beach to an egg. Sharp jagged edges do not make you feel at ease, but a field of straw bending in the wind, that is inviting. This is the reason why his work involves such beautiful subtle curves.”

Muggleton’s pieces are possessed of a dynamic Asian simplicity that suggests movement even as it evokes stillness and calm. His Macassar collection integrates bent laminates of Macassar Ebony—no mean feat since this species of wood is notoriously difficult to bend—with structural and decorative elements including glass, stainless steel, and leather upholstery.

The elements of the Macassar collection have a distinct yin-yang feel: the striated grains, which vary in color from a warm hazelnut to a rich chocolate to the carbon ebony of the name (sometimes along the same piece), are counterpoised to the luminescent steel, the creamy upholstery, and crystal clear glass in a way that emphasizes the play of opposites: curves and straight lines, light and dark, sun and shade, heaven and earth. One look at this exquisite collection and you may think you’ve landed in the former.

Design-Calendar Bloggiamo!
http://blog.design-calendar.com/

Top: With its bright strips of tape, the Kartell booth was reminiscent of the Color Exhibit at the MoMA.
Middle Left: Colorado-based furniture designer Andrew Muggleton posed in front of his latest collection.
Lower Left: The ducduc booth was always buzzing with adorable kids and design-forward adults.
Right: Bi-Polar, one of the many outrageously creative chairs from the students at the School of Visual Arts. It is part of their MFA Designer as Author 2008 Chair Project.

International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York 2008

2008-05-18T21:57:11Z

The International contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York opened two days ago . What an amazing combination of unique modern designs on display from all corners of the world. If you are in New York for the next two days, I highly recommend coming to the show and enjoying design in such abundance.

We have officially launched or New Macassar Collection in New York, to great response from those who have attended so far and also the media. Though we have many new designs at the show, there are also many more still in the works that were not finished in time to display. Including a new chaise lounge, a dining table and chairs, more lighting and bedroom furniture. I will be posting the new pieces on my website and this blog as they are released.

With the New Macassar Collection I have decided to offer something special: a new take on my most popular pieces, using one of the most unique and rare woods in the world. The new Macassar Collection features the use of Macassar Ebony wood, considered one of the most lustrous and beautiful of the ebony wood family. To be able to work with this wood is a crowning achievement for most wood workers, but it comes with a price. Macassar Ebony is notoriously difficult to bend; being more brittle than standard woods and also very dense, making for an extremely durable piece, but also requiring an expert hand. What makes this collection different to my other pieces are details such as; biscuit tuft upholstered leather seats, ¾” glass tops on the console tables, tapered curves and the perfectly matched veneer as it wraps around the entire piece.

Below are a few detail shots of the pieces at the show to display these changes. To see more please visit http://www.andrewmuggleton.com/macassar.htm or if you are in the city, come down to the show at the Jacob Javits center (directions can be found at http://www.javitscenter.com/directions/default.asp) and I would really enjoy giving you a personal tour through the new designs.

www.andrewmuggleton.com

New York Artful Home Show Presentation

2007-11-23T22:26:01Z

Flying back to Colorado from the New York show gave me time to slow down and reflect on the past three days. The show was an amazing success! The Guild did a wonderful job of putting the show together and the displays enabled everyone who has only seen photos of the work, to physically touch it and get a better perspective of how the pieces really do look.

I had fun giving a presentation on my work and thank you to all of those who attended and for filling every last seat in the room. I enjoyed letting you into my world of thought and explaining my process of developing an idea from concept to the final piece. Your questions were also a thrill to answer. I wanted to use this blog over the next few weeks to show those that did not make it to the show, the slides that were used and a few comments that I discussed in more depth in New York. Please respond with any thoughts of your own and any questions you were not able to ask at the presentation or have now.

“Below you can see how I have used a bridge as the inspiration for my arched coffee table, sometime the place or object of inspiration is unknown and it may be more subconscious. I have probably seen over a thousand bridges in my life but it wasn’t until I was walking down town Chicago that in an instant an idea for this coffee table came to me. I walking in to a bank and drew the idea on the back of a deposit slip. You can have a great idea but until you put it down on paper it will never materialize or will be simply be forgotten.”

Welcome

2007-11-04T16:30:54Z

Hi, this is Andrew Muggleton here, welcome to my blog postings. This is where you can find out where I will be exhibiting at shows, my speaking events and my take on where the design world is heading, the noticeable changes and discussions on my upcoming designs. I would love to hear your feedback, comments and general design questions, and thoroughly look forward to meeting you down the road at exhibitions and events.

This next year is a very exciting period, I have just launched a new advertising campaign in the Florida Design Magazine and Palm Beach Home & Décor so do look out for the adverts there. This month I'm in New York for The Artful Home Show ( more on that to come) and a big year for 2008 , kick starting the year in Palm Beach Florida for the Palm Beach Fine Craft Show and building up with fresh designs for The 20th annual International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York City In May

The Artful Home Show November 16-18, 2007 New York City

2007-11-04T16:30:23Z

Just over a week away for the Artful Home Show, if you are in New York for this weekend, or need an excuse to visit New York, come and join us at the Puck Building in SoHo (Corner of Houston and Lafayette Streets), a great selection of artists will be showing from around the country, and a rare opportunity to meet us in person. I shall be giving a talk on my designs, the processes I use and where I believe the direction of furniture design is heading. Do come and introduce yourselves to me and I'll be glad to take any questions you have on the day. If you have topics you'd like me to discuss on the day prior to the talk please leave your ideas here too. https://www.guild.com/servlet/Guild/ArtfulhomeShowIndex