Volume two: Samuel Otis Furniture
For the second installment of our journal series celebrating makers who put lasting design and quality craftsmanship at the heart of their work, we visited woodworker Samuel Otis of Samuel Otis Furniture.
Watch his story above, or read it below.
Formative years
Samuel first fell for working with wood in the classroom, during design and technology classes in high school. Next came a City & Guilds diploma in furniture making at trade school, and his first jobs, where he cut his teeth.
"I’ve worked at joineries, I’ve worked at shipyards, I’ve worked in factories," he says. "I’ve really grasped an understanding of process through these workplaces."
Yet it wasn’t until he set up a small studio in Falmouth, Cornwall, and started working alongside like-minded creatives and mentors that Samuel really began to think about form as well as function.
"The people that’ve been kind enough to give me their time and resources to lift me up and help me learn the craft, I’m eternally grateful for," he says.
"They’ll tell me when a curve is too accentuated or too subtle. They’ll name design movements I haven’t heard of and point me in the right direction.
"I have a very simplistic style, with clean lines and smooth, flowing curves."
Provenance and inspiration
Today, Samuel’s workshop is situated in the Cornish countryside, and he sources all the wood for his home goods and commissions from within the county.
"It’s really special to me, to know that the boards come from certain estates in Cornwall," he explains.
The grain matters just as much as where the wood comes from, and it shapes how he makes each piece.
"If you look at any of my work, the timber shines through. It acts as a central point," says Samuel. "There are many pieces in my archive that wouldn’t be as they are if it wasn’t for the characteristics in the grain."
One of the techniques that Samuel frequently uses to bring out these characteristics is called bookmatching.
"I can saw a piece [of wood] down the center and open it, and it becomes this amazing pattern.
"Every figure in the wood becomes accentuated by bookmatching, and this is why it’s quite a big part of what I do, whether it’s on cabinet doors or my trays."
These figures are many and varied, and Samuel knows them well.
"Spalting is a fungus that grows into the wood," he explains. "You can catch it at a point where it’s just eaten the pigment of the grain, which creates a light and a dark contrast in tone."
Ash is a favorite of his for its fine cut and its "cathedrals," the arch-like patterns in the grain that resemble Gothic windows.
"I use a lot of ash in my work, due to its porous nature and how it cuts really fine. I also like the cathedrals you get on it, and the patterns you get at the edge of the board, especially with burr ash.
"Burr is a cluster of knots that gets trapped inside a tree. The knots intertwine, get stuck on the outside of the tree and then go back in. This creates a swirling motion in the grain, which is brilliant for a feature top on a jewelry box."
"Good things last"
Samuel regularly turns to pieces from the past to hone his craft.
"I interact daily with multiple pieces of furniture that were made in the 1800s," he says. "Viewing how these pieces were made is really educational, as they’re tried and tested.
"Not many people are cabinet making now, which I think is a real shame. And I think that reclaiming the skill is essential because people need to know how to make things.
"A lot of beautiful things are coming from makers – potters, woodworkers, people that work in metals.
"Good things have value. Good things last. Good things save the environment."
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