Walnut box with reclaimed douglas fir lid.

“Hello, my name is Tariq. I'm opening a restaurant here in a few months. I know it's not what you guys usually make but would you be open to making a custom box for presenting steak knives?”

This steak knife box is commissioned by Chef Tariq and Aiden, owners of Fleurette (@fleuretterestaurant). Fleurette is a fine dining restaurant that seats up to 10 diners at a time. I love the story of how Fleurette came together, from hosting private dining pop ups to owning their own space now.

The basic idea was that when it comes to the time when the course of steak is to be served, a box of steak knives would be presented to the diner. This box contains a collection of knives made in France by Roland Lannier (http://rolandlannier.com), and the diner makes a choice. I love this idea of choice, where autonomy is handed to the diner as part of the dining experience. The experience enjoyed by the customer during a fine meal is as crucial as the food itself. It is what completes food to a dining experience.

So there was the brief: design and build a box for steak knives.

We looked at the journey that the owners had made so far, both with diverse backgrounds and different strengths. Fleurette is like a child to Tarik and Aiden and to us, the restaurant would be the focal point of the design. We were provided with a logo and that became the inspiration for the box design.

We would design the box with the same shape as the logo, a pentagon. Following with the flower concept, a Kumiko grid would be added with sakura (cherry blossom) pattern, each one representing Tarik and Aiden.

Details are shown with pictures below.

Cherry, Muninga door frame and ebony door pull.

Length 40cm x depth 38cm x 70cm

Book matched door panels - A single piece is slit in half and then spread open, like how a book is opened and laid on a table.

Body is constructed with hand-cut dovetail joints.

I specially like the ebony handles, very slim and low profile. I first made these handles 2 years ago as a box handle.

I’d like to name this Underscore in retrospect - because of how the cabinet bottom piece reminds me of an underscore. _ light colored sap wood material is quite inevitable in cherry stock and it is often challenging to decide where to incorporate the sap wood and balance against the very expensive material cost here in Singapore. In this piece most of the whiter stock are used for the interior, except for the piece just under the door on both left and right cabinets. Hence the name. _

A simple coffee table in beech. 

Picture 3 Kanna finish which shows the beautiful grain.

Picture 4 & 5 Dovetail joint - I quite like this arrangement where it looks like regular slanted box joints but when seen as a whole then you know these are dovetails

Picture 6 stretchers which double as storage area

Cherry 70cm x 40cm x 38cm

Job brief: ‘Make me a table that’s light enough to move around and for me to have a late meal in front of the telly’.

‘Ok’

It is adapted from a basic Moravian stool design, designed to be utilitarian and minimalistic. A 2mm gap was left between the 2 boards to add visual interest, I think it worked quite well when viewing it from the top - a line of light separating the 2 peaks in the wood grain.

Much care was given to the kanna shiage made by planing the surface only by hand plane till it is shiny by sight and feathery smooth by touch.

The edge and underside are designed for comfort and also to visually reduce the thickness.

The legs are given a slight taper, and are shaped from bigger octagonal to a smaller circle by hand .

HUA shall be thy name, named after the source of inspiration. This coffee table is inspired by a woodworking friend of mine @secretlifeoftrees_ who was teaching a student in its making.

#commissionwork #japanesedesign #handmadeinsg #madeinsingapore #customfurnituredesign #mokkoalvan #japanesewoodworkingtools

'Each flitch, each board, each plank can have only one ideal use. The woodworker, applying a thousand skills, must find that ideal use and then shape the wood to realize its true potential.

George Nakashima

Length 183cm depth 38-32cm height 53cm

Swiss pear wood, kapur wood and washi paper

Finished in Rubio monocoat and shellac

Design

The main board chosen was the widest board that I could find. The width determines the depth of the cabinet so I was quite reluctant to do any gluing up to increase the depth if it could be helped. All other parts of the carcass could could be constructed with glued up boards but the top had to be one piece.

I saw a bend along one of the top board edges and decided to use that live edge as the edge that was facing the front. In Japanese house construction, a beam that is slightly bent is used to face the entrance of the house so that visitors who walk into the house are greeted by a slight embrace. Its quite subtle and really subconscious. This bend in the main board also influenced the decision to make a slight bend in the legs stretcher as well.

There was a check / crack in the end of the board from drying so butterfly joints are put in to hold and prevent any future checking. The crack is also filled with clear epoxy resin.

The shoji style doors are chosen by the client. A compromise had to be reached because traditional shoji doors are sliding doors. They slide open and close on 2 or 3 tracks that are carved from the top and bottom. With the depth being close to being too shallow for use, a compromise was made to operate the doors in swing instead of sliding. This would allow the depth of the console to be maximized for the function it is built for. It was also clear that we would use very low profile knife / pivot hinges for this project and they would be the most tidy and refined looking. The hinges are made by Anton Gerner furniture from Australia.

This style of legs was used for an earlier kumiko sideboard. I first saw this style in Nakashima’s sideboards and really liked how simple and stylish they are. With this piece, a slight bend was introduced in the horizontal stretcher to match the bend that the top had. I think it makes the legs look sleeker.

Some videos taken from my workshop to give a better view have been added at the end of this page.

I am very pleased with how this project turned out.

Chair Backrest Height 74cm x Seat Height 44.5cm x Seat Depth 43cm in English Ash wood, with hand rubbed oil finish.

The construction of the chair is made with a total of 10 mortise and tenon joints for a fit that will guarantee the longevity for it to be worthy a heirloom piece.

Inspiration for the design of this chair came from a Japanese carpenter Masahiro Goto. Goto-San introduced this chair at a chair-making workshop in Israel which I did not have the good fortune to attend. I did, however, adapt his design after seeing pictures on social media. After making the chair, I sent Goto-San the completed pictures to thank him for the inspiration. He graciously replied that it was his honor of seeing his design inspire others to create works of art. Much to my surprise, he added that we had in fact met each other 1 year ago at the Takenaka Carpentry Museum in Kobe!

I recalled that after finishing visiting the exhibit sections, there was a workshop where one could experience using the tools that we had just seen in the exhibits sections, and there were many tools that one could play with. It was a little strange, because most people were at the parts where they could experience working the tools but what caught my eye was a craftsman seated at the nondescript corner of the workshop. He was seated and sharpening his blade there, and what caught my eye was how he was sharpening in a most peculiar manner. Craftsmen usually place their sharpening stones flat on a table but I noticed that his stone was propped up, and therefore changing the angle of sharpening. I approached him and most politely asked if I could observe him. I had no idea who he was but after the observance I thanked him and proceeded on my way. As it turns out, I was looking at Goto-San himself. I did not recognize him then and I am not sure how I made an impression on him, but he certainly remembered me. What an honor it was!

Windsor Chair in English Ash.

Reiwa (令和) is the name given to the new era in Japan following the abdication of Emperor Akithito and the succession of Crown Prince Naruhito to the throne in 2019.

Kumiko Sideboard. 137cm x 40cm x 75cm in cherry and poplar wood with washi paper.

The casework is constructed with dovetails at the bottom and recessed & wedged through-mortise and tenon joinery on the top. Sliding doors are shoji style without hardware, relying on the accuracy of the depth of grooves and matching length of runners on the doors. As usual, no nails / screws are used.

Deployment - I tried as much as possible to keep the piece as quiet as possible, so the lighter colored heartwood sides were kept on the inside of the case. Where it could not be avoided on the left upright of the case, I matched the light streak with a corresponding piece on the left door, and hopefully it looks like a complete streak.

In keeping with the quiet nature of the piece, the asanoha kumiko is introduced to mark the center of the the doors. This not only provides symmetry but also induces repeat patterns into the design. Repeating patterns are like pieces of history, where the same story is played and replayed over and over again. 

Kumiko Frame 165cm x 110m . The frame is constructed from African muninga wood. Asanoha kumiko pieces from ramin wood.

Koji and his wife Lina travel avidly and they wanted to chronicle their travels by scratching off countries off a world map. Koji bought the map and asked me to help make a picture frame for display in their home.

Inspiration for this piece came from my travels in Japan, where public notice boards were beautifully made of wood and all had a distinctive roof (refer to the last picture, taken in Arashiyama, Kyoto). I thought the roof was very apt for the design because - it’s like building a home and housing the world in your home, or the world is your home. No matter where we travel, home is where the heart is. And for many, the heart belongs to where family is.

To make this, stock with fiery grain was specifically chosen to make the roof portion while stock with quiet grain patterns for the frame. The four sides of the frame is then constructed using half lap joints which are further secured by a dowel only seen from the back. The vertical pieces are then joined to the roof structure by a sliding dovetail joint ensuring a tight and secure mechanical fit. The lattice work which binds the kumiko are mortised into the space formed by the top horizontal and the bottom portion of the roof.

African mahogany 300cm x 120cm x 10cm

A collaboration with Joshua Ram. This massive giant slab weighing slightly over 300kg was brought to us to be used as a dining table top. To stablise the slab, we added 5 inlay bars to the bottom and a total of 22 butterfly keys were inlaid by hand to arrest any further cracks in the wood. Epoxy was also added to fill the gaps between the 2 main branches of the tree which had long fused into the trunk.

Shelf in reclaimed Chinese elm and reclaimed kapur.

A commissioned piece for Tasmin. Tasmin hails from South Africa and I specially designed this heirloom piece to remind her of home. I am so grateful that she gave me the creative space to design this! “Please take care of the design.” was all she said after I visited her place and had a chat with her. 

Using Chinese Elm that used to be a beam in a Chinese village and Kapur that used to be flooring in old Singapore shophouses, they are now given a new lease of life that Tasmin will keep for a long, long time. 

The frame is held together entirely by mortise and tenon joints on the verticals and top and bottom stretchers are dovetailed to hold the 2 verticals together. Needless to say, no nails and screws used. 

Finished using 5 layers of hand rubbed tung oil up to 1200 grit paper and 0000 wire wool for the silky feel.

This was made for Chef Simone Vespiani for displaying his restaurant menu along the public sidewalk @trattorianonnalina 

This frame is made from white oak and joined by haunched mortise and tenon at all 4 corners. Rimming the inside frame is a rounded bead, also shaped by hand using a mentori kanna. 

Walnut seat, reclaimed kapur legs and reclaimed balau stretchers. 44cm height x 63cm length x 20cm width. 

Skinny legs were chosen for the self-confessed minimalist lover client and the floating top accentuates the slight cove planed into the front edge of the seat.

White oak, 60cm height x 15cm width x 15cm length

Meranti table top and Pine frame

Reclaimed Chinese elm live edge bench top and reclaimed kapur legs.

120cm x 46cm x 30cm

Reclaimed Teak

Each box is crafted from a single block of reclaimed teak wood. Their previous life was a staircase handle, supporting our family members as we climbed the stairs daily to our rooms. They now enjoy a new lease of life as holders of childrens’ milk teeth.