Seattle Homes & Lifestyles

Below is a portion of the article "Connect To Craft" found in Seattle Homes & Lifestyles Magazine, September 2008 Issue.

"The design-craft duo at Meyer Wells builds elemental modern furniture from local reclaimed urban trees. Designer John Wells describes the firm’s work as a great offset to more mass-produced design. “I don’t like interior environments where everything is handmade by an individual artisan. There are too many voices yelling and screaming. Our work, intentionally, does not scream ‘artistic expression,’” he says.

Wells emphasizes simplicity: “If you just look at the material [reclaimed wood], it’s so overpowering. But we have a vision of something that’s not just material-based.”

Seth Meyer, master craftsman and the other half of the design partnership, describes their work as a weaving together of modern principles with a deep respect for nature. “The material, our aesthetic and [our] processes are balanced to solve a problem,” Meyer says. “To me, that’s what design is all about: art that solves a problem.”

An eye to the proportions and harmony of a piece start with a drawing or model that resolves some of the issues of structure and form; then the craft comes in and makes the natural material actually work with the form, Meyer explains. “It also begins with the milling,” Wells says. “Seth does all the milling for every log … he understands how the grain works inside the tree.”

Meyer and Wells cite critical touchstones for their work: earth, water, fire, air. “It’s important to remember that we are humans living on the planet in the middle of a universe,” Wells says. What are our priorities? “Let’s get back to what is really important: the elemental.” For the design-build duo, part of that expression comes from making beautiful things from fallen trees that aren’t far from home."

BY: Virginia Bunker
PHOTOGRAPHY: Hank Drew