Thirston Morris
Furniture Designer Maker
I have a passion for the crafts, in particular my area, which is Furniture Designing and Making.
The furniture I really love to make, explores contradictions, opposites, misdirection and surprise, whether this is achieved through texture, shape, function or just perception. I like to incorporate ideas derived from architecture and nature and I like furniture which has some complexity in the construction. Every piece that leaves my workshop is built to be an heirloom, crafted slowly with intention and respect for the material.
Playing and making things with wood are amongst my earliest memories. I grew up in a household where things were made from our house to items of decoration and function, such as furniture. I learnt my initial skills from my father, a master craftsman, providing a solid foundation in hand skills and timber knowledge.
I have had a broad range of woodworking experience, including first and second fix carpentry, kitchen manufacturing and stair making but it was after formal training in 2004, in London, where I learned the meticulous disciplines of fine joinery, attaining two City and Guilds Certificates in Hand Crafted Cabinet Making and Wood Machining, that opened up the world of Furniture making and I have been working as a Furniture Designer Maker ever since.
I feel passionately about my trade and about passing on my knowledge so with the desire to impart some of these skills and knowledge to Woodwork enthusiasts, I also run Fine Woodwork classes.
When I consider what inspires me, I sometimes feel it is too broad. I am a Post-Modern child; there are so many styles I like. I realise that while I like and use a lot of aesthetics from the past, I will increasingly look to the future and nature for my inspiration. I feel inspired by some of the modern Architecture I see and I love shapes one finds in Nature. Structural integrity is very important to me; I like joined furniture and in this regard the past has a lot to offer.