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Masters of the Craft

Curve It Like König

Jon Binzen, senior editor

56 users recommend

Photo: Goran Basiric

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For two decades, Vancouver furnituremaker Enrico König made his living planting trees. Working in the boreal forests of British Columbia, he helped replant clear cuts so vast they were visible from the Moon. Working hard through the warmer months, he could easily earn enough to support himself for the whole year. One winter a friend gave him the use of his garage woodworking shop to make Christmas presents, and König soon found himself spending his off months buying woodworking tools and learning how to use them.

With no training in woodworking and little contact with other woodworkers, König learned much about the field through reading. But perhaps the most important source of inspiration for him was the Eastside Culture Crawl. The Crawl is a three-day event, held each November in East Vancouver, during which more than three hundred artisans open their studios to the public. During the Crawl König visited prominent Vancouver furniture makers like Arnt Arntsen and Judson Beaumont, and his hobby instantly got more serious. Eventually König decided to close his tree-planting business and dive into furniture full time. These days, his one-man shop is included in the Crawl.

After working primarily in solid wood early on, König bought a vacuum bag and began experimenting with bent lamination and veneered forms. He developed a line of pieces incorporating dramatic arched bases and dazzling veneers. This slideshow presents a range of his curved work, some of it bent-lam and some of it coopered.

König's work was featured on the back cover of Fine Woodworking #219.

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Comments (9)

woodgear writes: great piece
Posted: 5:09 pm on September 11th

yodera writes: Incredible works of art. Very inspiring.

Posted: 6:56 pm on April 25th

shoppro writes: We should all be so lucky to be as creative and talented
Posted: 5:50 pm on April 20th

Skyeboat writes: I saw his work at the "Culture Crawl" in Vancouver last year and WOW is right ...
Posted: 6:55 pm on April 12th

jmotto writes:
Beautiful curves. Very Nice Work.
Posted: 5:19 pm on April 12th

Rubeman writes: nice catch

Posted: 4:26 pm on April 12th

slowman writes: Beautiful, well done, and inspiring. such apparent ease that hides the bear of the technique. truly worthy of praise, total control over the art. for me, this is heart moving. Thanks!
Posted: 6:08 am on April 12th

Toehead61 writes: Ditto PORC except with more exclamation marks!!!!!!!!!!
Posted: 6:10 pm on April 11th

PORC writes: Thanks for sharing such a great work. All I can say is WOW!!

Posted: 8:48 pm on April 7th

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