Furniture as art - Joseph Walsh

I don't think there's another designer and furniture maker who makes my heart race every time I look at his creations. I've written about furniture designers whose work is more art than furniture, but as far as I'm concerned, none of them manage to do it at such a level. What follows will be about furniture as art and how Joseph Walsh thinks and transforms wood.

Joseph Walsh is a young Irish designer and woodworker, already known all over the world. He is one of those who are ahead of their time, and you'll soon understand why I say that. Joseph was born in Cork, Ireland in 1980. He started working with wood at the age of 8, learning the craft from his grandfather, a master carpenter. By the age of 12 he could make a cabinet by himself, without any help, from start to finish. At the same time, he was constantly drawing special furniture designs. He decided to drop out of school to have time to draw and work on his creations.

At the age of 19 he set up his own studio, working in a family-owned space, and at 23 he was already working in the National Museum in Ireland. But international recognition came in 2008 when, at the invitation of the American Irish Historical Society in New York, he had a solo exhibition which led to numerous private commissions and an invitation to exhibit at the London Pavilion of Art and Design.

His works are now in private collections, museums and exhibitions. The Duke of Devonshire's passion for his work is well known, with an impressive collection at Chatsworth House in Bakewell, UK. Works by Joseph Walsh can also be found at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Art and Design in New York and the Japanese Embassy in Dublin.

Walsh works with ash wood, which he cuts, laminates and curves in sinuous lines that make you think of ribbons. In the workshop, the ash lumber is cut and re-dried to achieve balance. The strips are then glued together and curved into shapes reminiscent of those in nature. When the final shape of the furniture has been achieved, the finishing begins. The wood is carefully sanded to the desired smoothness and then treated with natural oils. Sometimes, for some designs, the wood is structured with brushes to enhance the grain. It's all done by hand and moulds are not really a matter of choice. Joseph only makes single pieces or very small series.

The activity is also carried out on the family property, in an old potato warehouse transformed into a beautiful studio. From a single employee in his own workshop, he has now grown to 20 employees, all of whom are outstanding craftsmen, graduates of prestigious schools in Ireland, as well as France, Japan, Argentina, Portugal and Israel. Joseph now does more of the design and engineering, leaving the execution to his team.

Perhaps his best-known piece is the canopy bed from the Enignum collection, whose name comes from the Latin words Enigma and Lignum (wood). About this bed The Wall Street Journal wrote in 2011 that it's one of those things you think can't exist and wonder how it can be "amazingly sensual and brilliantly technical at the same time".

In recent years Walsh has also started working with other materials. He combined wood with resin and was much happier with the result than when he combined it with glass because of the interesting textures. Resin is also fluid and the result is always surprising.

At one point he also associated marble with his work. Connemara marble, renowned for its colours, was a favourite. Together with his team and a specialist firm, he developed an intricate technology that combines resin and marble, making them seem to merge. The table made with this technology seems to float above the ground.

Joseph Walsh's belief is that we can increase the quality of life by surrounding ourselves with objects that have value over functionality and aesthetics, that have intelligence in their creation. For his outstanding achievements University College Cork, part of the National University of Ireland, awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2015.