Young designer reinventing simple pieces of furniture

When I discover a great design in an ordinary and perhaps even mundane piece of furniture, I want to find out as much as I can about the person who made it. That's how I discovered Jan Waterston, a young designer, more self-taught than educated, who discovered his passion by chance and has now, at 30, gone on to win a host of awards and is already a household name in furniture design in England.

Actually Jan is not a designer but an inspired carpenter, a very talented furniture maker as there are many here. She took a fine arts course at one point, never thinking she would end up using that knowledge. Before discovering his passion, he traveled extensively and worked in various fields. At one point he was involved in setting up a stand at a furniture fair and was very impressed by how beautiful some of the pieces were, true works of art. It was the event that shaped his destiny.

He immediately enrolled at Rycotewood Furniture Oxford, an internationally renowned center of excellence with an established reputation in the furniture industry for over 80 years. This gave him the necessary knowledge of furniture design and construction and allowed him to unleash his imagination and native talent.

His works are the result of the questions he asks himself. "Can I twist it? Can I bend it? How will he react? How do I reinterpret an idea that didn't work before?" He tries to find the answers to the questions by letting them lead him. Even if he starts from a plan, it is not the definitive one, the plan undergoing changes depending on how the wood responds to his intentions. Many times his experiences also led him to mistakes and he had to redo everything. But he also learned from this. He realized that if he cut wrong he can't fix it, if he dropped a tool and scratched the wood he has to start from the beginning if he wants things to turn out perfectly.

Jan Waterston has succeeded in attracting attention with some outstanding works. These include the Velo chair and rocker, inspired by modern bicycles. The parts of the chair are continuous, surrounding you, and you get the feeling that they mold to you for comfort. Jan has transformed a static object into a dynamic piece of furniture. Everything has been handmade from ash wood with minimal joints and no added elements.

Another interesting piece is the cabinet that looks like a wood carving. You can't see the doors or the drawers, so at first glance you can't believe it's a wardrobe.

Here too, the wood is shaped in such a way as to inspire fluidity and dynamism. It's a beautiful, innovative object that satisfies the need for beauty and utility in equal measure.

The console in Lebanese cedar and cherry, the desk in wenge and ash or the tall cupboard harmoniously combining cherry with walnut, elm and rosewood are also remarkable. Intelligent solutions, simplicity when wood has a lot to say, as in the case of wenge, are the strengths of this young designer who we are sure to hear from again. I leave you to admire his work, urging you not to overlook the beauty and correctness of the joints.