Originally from a family of boatbuilders and weavers in the Finnish archipelago, Joachim King has craft in the blood. He uses traditional techniques from wood-turning, carving and boatbuilding to create contemporary, sculpted furniture.

“I grew up on islands near the town of Porvoo in Finland and Luing on the west coast of Scotland, so boats and the sea were a huge influence,” he says. “I picked up a lot of skills from my father who built many boats and even the house we lived in.”

King’s curved tables, chairs and lamps, most of them one-off designs, have a nautical elegance combined with a practical sensibility. For King, function is just as important as form — even his most splendidly arched, perilously perched chairs are designed for comfort. Although he took an unusual route into his profession — studying mechanical engineering at Bristol University before working for an LED lighting manufacturer in north Wales — he has been building furniture and model boats since he was a child. He moved to Glasgow to work for the furniture maker Matthew Hutchinson before setting up his own business.

Using traditional boatbuilding techniques such as laminating and steam bending, King is able to create strong thin bends that allow for exquisite detailing and shapely contours. This is where the skills he picked up from his father come in most handy.

“It’s a case of adapting traditional techniques to make modern, sculptural furniture and lighting — of creating something new and fresh and not just falling back into tradition at every point. If I can do something different with a piece of wood, then I usually do.

“Making furniture was a hobby before it was my profession and now it’s a passion. I built some of the holiday house and the furniture I stay in when I’m in Finland. If I need it and I can build it, I will try.”

King is proud to be called a craftsman, pointing out that without some of the handed-down skills he has acquired over the years, his designs would be impossible.

“I used to go to a lot of craft fairs with my mum when I was a kid and a lot of the stuff can be quite predictable. But plenty of young designers are using traditional techniques to do something more stylish, more design-led. And that, in the end, is why we pass them on.”

For more on Joachim King’s work, visit www.reformthenorm.co.uk or www.scottishfurnituremakers.org.uk.

The C Word is a campaign by Craft Scotland to promote Scotland’s craft industries as innovative and desirable.

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