Diego Bernasconi
My background in design and furniture making started while still living in my homeland in Patagonia, Argentina.
In my late 20’s I worked in a small furniture making firm run by two very competent industrial designers, and from them I learned to look at things and think in a different way about design, furniture, furniture making and our environment. Here is when I realised that I had an obsessive passion for working with my hands and with any materials that I could come across, especially wood.
Once I left I studied in two outstanding City&Guilds institutions in the UK and worked for a well-established furniture and kitchen maker in Cambridgeshire. From my very beginnings I discovered design as the root of my learning, quickly branching out to make furniture and understanding the important relationship between interiors, lifestyle and everyday objects. By working with wood I became aware of how to express myself and use my ideas to create, as I see it, art that people can use.
ATTENTION TO DETAIL MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE.
The furniture I design is the result of my critical eye that was imposed by the people that taught me, the people I worked for and those who gave me the chance to create bespoke pieces for them.
I have a fastidious eye for perfection and I think functional furniture can share the concept with aesthetic design, becoming a thing of beauty that you can use, feel and enjoy.
I do believe that all craft and artistic endeavour is valid, but in every piece I aim to show a higher quality standard of work. This reflects the way I do things and think.
In my student years I learned the basic skills for which I am very grateful, but with experience, trial and many errors, I come to achieve great personal satisfaction when I create a piece that I would be pleased to see and have.
Many people have become disillusioned by cheap, quick and mass produced pieces that met the recycling centre after about three years. We have embraced the idea of timeless pieces that can be passed down to our kids and to their children. What better way of demonstrating our green credentials than by buying items that will last several lifetimes?
Your beautifully designed and made piece shall be included in your family heirlooms and be loved and enjoyed by the ones close to you. Because what I do, I take very seriously.
MEET THE CREW!
The Designer
The Maker
The Marquetry Virtuoso
Stay positive...
Always calm...'
The Custom Finishing Specialist
The Receptionist
The Senior Technician
The Health & Safety Director
The Heating Systems Engineer
The Decorator
Our Delivery Driver
I have now changed to a different style of travelling'.
From my workshops to your door.
Visitors
The time I got a call from London...
Chatting about important matters with Her Royal Highness…(bow)
She even made me a vegan sandwich…
The time they told me I was doing well...
Receiving the City and Guilds Medal for Excellence from David Pomfret, Principal of Isle Campus, College of West Anglia.
The following year I was nominated a second time.
No sandwich.
Judged by their cover...
There is something therapeutic about touching wood. In my experience, I see that the first thing that people do when they see a piece of furniture is to touch it. Feeling the finish seems to be the first and almost the most important part of their new piece, and if they find any imperfections, no matter how small, their hand will come back to it, like a magnet. Therefore I make sure that whatever the finish I use, it has been applied as it should.
Let’s say you are buying a high-end piece of furniture which you already imagined it in its place in your home or your office. You waited with excitement for 3 months until it was delivered and then you find that when you touch it, that it’s not right. You will be disappointed and I would be terribly embarrassed to take it back to the workshop until the imperfection is fixed.
Making things right after they went wrong is a hard, delicate, skilled and time-consuming task.
Therefore, when the piece is delivered to you, I make sure that I am completely happy with it. Sure, money is important, but I’m here to make furniture to last and to develop confidence for returning public. I don’t want disappointed clients and your funds returned back to you…
The best finish is the one that has been applied patiently, gently and in many thin coats over time, and generally speaking, I tend to use natural oils to finish all my pieces.
Why natural oils?
I think they enhance the natural characteristics of the wood as they penetrate it deeply, creating many thin layers but always respecting its colour and texture. This way, wood and oil become one, and they will never come apart.
Once dry, natural oils get harder with time, protecting the piece and giving that distinctive tactile feel. They are splash-proof, heat and alcohol resistant, children friendly and worktop friendly. And they smell better…
From the moment I started woodwork, I learnt to pay attention in how to avoid poor techniques and why they don’t work. The traditional methods I use are practised by woodworkers simply because they are the most effective ones and they have proved to work through time, use and abuse.
Wood doesn’t come in cans, and every bit of timber will, by default, be different and therefore unique. I spend a long time selecting it in the making process, ensuring that I’m happy with it, with a very picky eye. The finishing journey is the same. So my design features are a result of the individual characteristics of the boards I use for that project. The wood shows me the grain and pattern. I just choose how to cut it.
As a perfectionist, this is exactly what I would expect from a furniture-maker.
As a maker of furniture, I can be a real pain when I come to meet my own demands.
And now what?
We can discuss your options and your needs. If possible, I would meet you where the piece will be displayed and used. This will enable me to get a better idea of the styles you like and the ones you don’t. I will draw some sketches with you to get close(ish) to what the piece will look like and after that we can communicate through email, where I can send you a few other ideas, show you some features and the final drawings.
Pictures will be sent to you as the piece progresses, but by this time, you would have already paid your juicy deposit which will allow me to give you a space in my busy calendar, buy the materials and start work. The final part of the fee will be gladly received just before I deliver and install the piece myself.
From this moment, you would have just bought furniture for life. I will look very happy and I’ll do a little jump of joy after I left.
