Nathan Goldsworthy has been making furniture for as long as he can remember. The first iterations were the work of a creative young child, crafted with tree branches and rusted tools.
It’s a fascination that has taken him on a lifelong journey of discovery and innovation. “I’ve always been interested in the way things are made, especially industrial manufacturing processes. I’m interested in finding processes in manufacturing, perhaps undiscovered opportunities in the material — things that haven’t yet been realised,” he tells us.
Ballerina Table
The Ballerina table, a piece first designed a decade ago for a commercial client as a meeting table, has become quite the icon of New Zealand furniture design. “It proved useful in the home and it has evolved into a dining table of various shapes and sizes.”
The consistent features of the Ballerina are the pedestals: distinctive, asymmetrical, and designed to prevent knees from knocking it. Carved away at exactly the right points, viewed in silhouette it is evocative of a ballerina in pose: “The facets suggest a rotational movement,” Nathan explains.
Double Happy Stool
A more recent piece, the Double Happy stool, is an attempt, as Nathan explains it, “to make the most stool-like stool, to define the archetype”. Viewed from the side, its shape is one of utter simplicity: the plane of the seat, a cross bar and legs. “It has a toy-like quality with no hard edges and a deep seat, generous and comfortable.” The footrest is cast in bronze, a material choice that fits seamlessly with Nathan’s wider ethos: to design and craft pieces that have something to say; those that will endure.
The bronze will patina over time, taking on the qualities of the environment in which it exists, much like the Ash frame and seat. Goldsworthy Studio’s pieces are made to order, and can often be customised, while a key part of the studio’s practice is bespoke commissions.
