We will make our first appearance of the trade show season this year at the Architectural Digest Home Show in New York City March 18-21. Our booth number is M37 and located in the ‘MADE’ section, which is a juried section of limited edition art objects and furnishings. We are offering a trade show discount of 15% on our studio line for all sales made onsite. I am able to give away two passes to everyone who subscribes to our newsletter. So sign up! And see you there!

In this letter I will try to explain our “green” philosophy as I think there are many different philosophies a company can maintain in this conversation. As noted on my bio, I share a personal alliance with the ancient religion of Shintoism. While it is impossible to summarize Shintoism in a single sentence, it is possible to summarize its relevance to “green” building. Shintoism is founded on the belief that one must pay respects to ancestors and objects that have come before it. This includes all objects of nature, and specifically for these purposes – trees. As a furniture maker, I feel it is absolutely necessary to value the sacrifice the tree has given us in order to produce our furniture.

We pay respect to the tree by not being wasteful. This includes not discarding unused “cut-off”. In the past, we have donated our cut-off to a local manufacturer who then makes other pieces of furniture from a collective scrap pile. We also pay respect to the tree by doing our best to showcase the inherit beauty of the tree and in our judgment showcase wood’s natural beauty in the best way possible for everyone to gain an appreciation.

There is a relatively new term being applied to a certain core of furniture maker in the green movement as “heirloom design”. Quite simply, this concept maintains that sustainability is best created when a piece of furniture is designed with the durability to last generations; therefore the need to produce replacements is decreased.

Another aspect of our “green” plan is to use locally harvested woods for our manufacturing process. I feel this approach to materials reduces our carbon footprint over the larger manufacturers who claim to use “green” materials in their furniture produced in Chinese factories and then shipped overseas. On a side note, I have visited a “so-called” green factory in China to observe the manufacturing process first-hand and there is nothing in the process that could be considered green as I observed and breathed to pollution created and the landscape desecration.

In several of our custom projects, we have worked with reclaimed materials originally from building demolitions. We have used reclaimed southern yellow pine floor joists and repurposed the wood into interior doors and reclaimed oak beams have been turned into benches and banquets. When an exotic wood (teak or mahogany) is requested, we source our materials from Teak and Woods, a company that utilizes responsibly forested wood and are currently awaiting their FSC certification.

When we are finishing our furniture we have two methods we prefer to utilize. For our studio line and all other stand alone custom furniture, we hand apply all finishes. By applying finish by hand not only is the final result beautiful, but we do not add hazardous air pollution to our environment. On the occasions when we are building a larger, commercial project we employ the local “green-conscious” furniture finishers, Surface Environment. Surface Environment is committed to only using the best and most environmentally safe products.

I’d like to introduce you to our upholstery collection. Our collection is unique as each sofa pillow or back bolster or floor pillow or whatever it is that inspires us is one of a kind. All decorative textiles chosen are antique and repurposed from far reaches of the globe. I became fascinated with the color and beauty of Central Asian textiles while travelling across Asia last year with my family. I was completely blown out of the water with the workmanship and craft that went into making what was once considered peasant material. I began to think that these textiles could be an ideal match for the furniture I have been making. Both the textiles and the furniture represent an old world way of craft – doing it by hand! Some of the pillows come from Uzbekistan and a couple others currently in stock are from Japan. All pillows are stuffed with artificial horse hair quilt batting. All suede used is supplied by the Silk Trading Co. Please email directly for inquiries into the provenance and availability of individual upholsteries.  Additions will be added to collection in limited numbers only as much as my search for textiles allows.

It now possible to follow the daily interactions here at our workshop and showroom on twitter. To become a follower, find us at twitter.com/pickettfurnitur

I wanted to share a few snapshots that I took while putting together this collection of furniture. A key aspect of the furniture we make and design is the hand cut joinery. Largely inspired by Japanese carpentry, these joints are critical not only in their sturdiness but also in the design.

Here are photos of the fitted Mechigai-dome (rabbeted stub tenon) joinery and corresponding modified tenons for the Ond Bench.

Here is an example of Kashigi-oire (angled stub mortise) joinery that is used by the upright supports into the back slab of the Forbannelse chair.

And here is a traditional mortise and tenon that is implemented in joining the pedestal to the horizontal base of the Helvete Dining table.

I am exhibiting my furniture at the Dwell on Design Show in Los Angeles June 26-28. The show is at the Los Angeles Convention Center and my booth number is 1206.

I am showing my furniture June 15-17 at NeoCon in Chicago, booth 1047 on the 8th floor.

I wish to thank everyone who stopped by the booth last week. I had a great time exhibiting and meeting everyone.

I will be debuting my furniture line this weekend at the ICFF trade show at the Jacob Javits Center in New York.

Visit the ICFF site for show details