The company builds each piece by hand in their Red Hook Brooklyn studio and has a strong Slow Life aesthetic: “We strongly agree with the shaker assertion that ‘beauty rests on utility’. We strive to make furniture and products that are beautiful in their simplicity with an acute awareness of materials, and craft. Many of the items we create utilize materials that have been reclaimed, recycled, repurposed, reused or otherwise rejected from their original function.”

The company  (pronounced ooh-HOO-roo) was founded in 2004 by Rhode Island School of Design Graduates Jason Horvath and Bill Hilgendorf, who wanted to merge avant-garde design with a commitment to environmental sustainability.

Indeed, Uhuru has joined a vanguard of influential furniture companies from Milan to Tokyo focused on pushing the boundaries of contemporary sustainable design. The company’s furniture  has been internationally recognized for its innovation, is in the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum, and has been exhibited at the Milwaukee Museum of Art.  Uhuru has collaborated with recognized designers and architects worldwide, as well as artists such as Maya Lin for the Cooper Hewitt and Dan Colen at the Gagosian Gallery.

Both Horvath and Hilgendorf believe that each piece conceived, designed, and produced should add to some greater good for the world.  This is evident in their creative reuse and repurpose in the creation of fine furniture.  Though Uhuru continues to grow, their focus remains on building furniture of exceptional quality, one piece at a time.

The start of a new quilt marks the beginning of a project that could last weeks, month or even years, as the hobby is passed down through generations. In America, patchwork quilts were traditionally made by the women of a family, who made squares to represent stages of their journey through life, depicting events such as weddings or the birth of a child.

Today, as many people rediscover lost crafts, interest in quilt-making is enjoying a resurgence. For some, it’s a fun and relaxing way to create individual and personal items for the home, while others get hooked on the feeling of telling a story. Mimicking the age-old tradidion, almost any life experience can be rendered in a quilt, however seemingly mundane.

Some quiltmakers set themselves the task of creating a new square every week, taking inspiration from its events. They find it a helpful creative challenge to come up with ideas on quieter weeks, and enjoy recording bigger as and when they occur. They may record sadder life events too, and in this respect, quilt-making can be a great form of therapy.

Quiltmaker Pat Hamilton finds that her hobby is a great way to reflect on the past, present and to look forward to the future. But in her case it’s also a form of communication, as she used the medium to stay in touch with her son, a soldier serving in Iraq. Each week, she sent him a new squre that detailed the family’s most recent news.

If you think that making quilts could enrich and help to record your life, there’s some good basic information on how to get started here.

Image: Net Efekt

Talking about how he set up his company, founder Jan Harm ter Brugge explains: “I’m an industrial designer, and a few years ago I decided it was time for a shift for my own practice: making things I like, with fine materials and great tools in a nice environment is often better than slaving away behind a computer, designing unwanted plastic products nobody really needs.”

“So I started off making spoons and whistles for my kids like my grandfather did for me when I was ten.”

Using wood sourced from their own small half acre of mixed forest as well as an Amsterdam-based gardening company, Hout Van Bomen utilizes traditional tools and crafting techniques to make their products.

Jan also offers weekend carpentry workshops in the Netherlands, or workshops and lectures elsewhere (they can bring tools, tents and wood for max. 8 people).

Our history of books began with long scrolls of text written onto tree bark, leaves and papyrus. But soon, as the length of texts increased and with the growing need to preserve important documents, the art of bookbinding gained popularity. The craft developed in the religious sectors of India through carefully assembling by hand a large number of folded or unfolded sheets of paper and threading them into a book. This was then protected with outer wooden boards and animal leather – usually goatskin which has a natural grained surface and is durable and attractive and comes in wide variety of colours.

Over time bookbinding developed a whole host of techniques, including rounded spines and strapped books, creating a delicate and considered craft that is still being traditionally utilised today.

Shepherds is home to two of London’s oldest and most prestigious hand bookbinding companies, Zaehnsdorf (est.1842) and Sangorski & Sutcliffe (est.1901) of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From its bindery, it creates new bindings, repairs and full restorations and helps to conserve existing sewn bindings in order to keep paper artefacts alive for more decades to come.

Tasks include cleaning and repairing the paper; rebinding with either basic cloth-case binding or valuable and full-vegetable tanned leather bindings that have been dyed with natural dyes; and repairing tears with exclusive handmade papers are used, including its own range of marble papers based on historical examples.

This is achieved through patience, delicate attention to detail and many specialised hand tools of hammers, knives and brass finishing equipment. The bindery can support with expert finishing, such as 19th century techniques of engraving and gold decoration too, that take many years of practice to perfect.

If you would like to experience the Slow Skill of bookbinding, you could enrol on one of Shepherds’ two day beginner’s courses at the pleasantly named Daffodil Barn at its workshop in Wiltshire. This covers the basic principles of bookbinding including grain direction, and how to handle adhesives and bookbinding materials with confidence.  The course is based around practical demonstrations and hands-on exercises; at least two books will be completed by the end of the course.

Shepherds Bookbinding

Image: Nate Steiner