Australian Wood Review - June 2018

http://www.woodreview.com.au 35

PROFILE

Elemental

Design

Refinement is the design ethos that Ben

Percy upholds and communicates to

others. Story by Linda Nathan.

D

esigning is not easy but it’s a skill you can learn.

It’s something I’ve been practising and working

on for the last ten years, constantly drawing and

observing’, said Ben Percy, 31 when I met up with

him recently in Sydney.

Ben is a maker and also a teacher, one who enables

others to discover the confidence in themselves that

they too can imagine and create. His capabilities and

communication skills have made him sought after

as a teacher wherever he has been a student. It’s the

things he has designed and made however, that initially

brought attention from the press.

The Pod, a student piece that became a long-term

project, was 256 pieces of wood, each tapered and

shaped from solid wood by handplane and spokeshave

Mantis hall

table, Tasmanian

blackwood,

koto. ‘I’m always

designing around

that hero shot.’

Photo: Jack Bussell

‘