The Craftsman

Paul Stevens began developing his skill as a carpenter from an early age experimentally constructing pieces of garden furniture and trelliswork from storm damaged timber found in his local woodlands and forestry. After graduating from college he began his career as a carpenter. He gained inspiration through travelling much of Asia, observing traditional carpentry skills particularly the incredible practicality found in the use and adaptation of locally available materials and the ingenious use of various natural features or innate qualities of the wood, for instance the amazing variety of beautiful yet practical instruments produced solely from bamboo in the jungles of Borneo. It was here he first observed craftsmen ‘letting nature of the talking’.

On returning to England he began searching for interesting looking timbers and experimenting with design and joinery techniques that would preserve and enhance the natural beauty of the timber. Through this self-taught approach to design and construction of furniture Paul developed his distinctive style formed around the natural beauty of waney edged English hardwoods.

"Whilst I have immense respect for the highly developed methods of traditional cabinet makers and the results they produced, it always seemed a shame to me to lose the most interesting parts of the felled tree, the knots the light coloured sapwood, beautiful waney edges and even the actual bark of the tree, all features that are so often unwanted or regarded as defections/imperfections. My aim is therefore to preserve and enhance these beautiful natural edges instead of removing them and leaving straight-machined edges. Many of my pieces therefore proudly display the true edge of the tree right through form bark to heartwood particularly when using oak burrs or English walnut where the bark is robust enough."