Interview with Knót Artesanal

The Knót (ki-notch-e) comes from joining knot and nó (knot in Portuguese), and that basically sums up what we are, two different people from two different places with different backgrounds and ideas, though at the same time really the same thing.

Design for us is about finding something new in something that was already there. Like Gaudi said, Originality consists in returning to its origin.

The most satisfying thing to design for us is seating, creating something striking is one thing, as is creating something comfortable, but combining the two creates completely new challenges. One exerts limits on the other, you change one and the other reacts. For it to succeed you have to find a balance.

Our favourite material is obviously wood. This is what Knót was formed around, it's a material that's always been a big feature in both of our lives. Not only do we love the look and feel of it but also how it is to work with and how each species has it's own characteristics and limitations.

Unfortunately there's no telling otherwise it would be a lot easier to plan.

We focus mainly simplicity which often takes the form of clean lines, sharp angles and balanced proportions.

It's basically a constant oscillation between frustration and satisfaction.

A mixture of relief and joy.

The uniqueness, and not necessarily the design in itself, but also the thought process that led to that design.

With our own pieces we always make sure that everything we do is justifiable, we want to make sure that every decision we make is for a well thought out reason and not superfluous. It's hard then not to apply this to other designs and anything that doesn't quite fit with this perspective ends up standing out.

We believe that the future of design is rooted in the past, small scale independent designers and makers producing handcrafted quality goods. Unique pieces, each one with its own story.

We live in Paraty, a small but multi-cultured coastal town in south-eastern Brazil with beautiful beaches, thick jungle and a striking mountain backdrop. Being surrounded by some of nature's best designs it's impossible that some of this doesn't trickle down into our own pieces.

One thing that was important for us was the return to working by hand, when you go back to the very basics and start with a piece of wood and a few hand tools, you open up a whole new path that can lead you somewhere that you may never get to otherwise.

One of the most important skills is to know when it's time to change track. It's easy to get sucked into an idea and keep battling with when if you just take a minute and take a step back you see that you've been going in the wrong direction.

All of our pieces are handmade by us using traditional woodworking methods so our toolbox is full of many different types of hand tool.

You need to be flexible, instead of saying I'm going to solve this problem now when you're not really in the right state of mind for it, you need to think, 'what am I most capable of doing at this particular moment?'

It varies enormously from one project to the next, some just fall into place almost by themselves whereas other just drag on and on in some cases need to left for time and returned to at a later date with a fresh set of eyes and ideas.

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