People / Cam Rowley
Cam Rowley is an emerging furniture designer and maker based in London. His work aims to celebrate wood as a material. At the centre of his practice is the belief that handmade objects have soul, and add value to everyday life. He is dedicated to shifting the perceptions of craft. By pulling back the curtain on traditional techniques, he hopes to give them new life, crafting refined pieces with subtle nods to woodworking heritage. Cam believes wood is infinitely versatile and works to explore new ways to use the material. From his workshop in South London, he hand crafts unique pieces which are guided by these principles.
A Seat at the Table: Chair 3
A stool exploring Rowley’s heritage, inspired by traditional European carved folk furniture and Southern African ‘shweshwe’ fabric. The carved symbols on European folk furniture all have meanings and are a form of prayer and story telling, and would have been carved by ordinary people, rather than skilled craftsmen. ‘Shweshwe’, commonly referred to as the ‘tartan’ of South Africa, is a traditional dyed cotton fabric originally worn by Xhosa and Sotho brides, now used widely across cultures.
Mended Clun Chair
While most of my paid work is making solid wood furniture and cabinetry, my ambition is to transition to green chairmaking, making and selling chairs of my own design. Using green (freshly felled) wood to make chairs is a time sensitive process. Green wood dries out, hardens, and shrinks over time meaning there are several processes which need to happen sequentially and within a certain window of time. Working full time on paid work means I have only a few hours spread over short periods during the week to build a body of work which I feel is representative of my design philosophy.
This piece is a response to that time constraint. It is an antique post-and-rung chair repaired by splicing in new green ash. Limiting myself to one small repair at a time means I’m better able to fit the making process into small pockets of spare time.