Interview with oEbanista

Designing is for me I way of transforming ideas into things. I'm not a scholar designer. I became a designer because of my work with wood. Something that happened through the use of the hands.

Mostly wooden furniture. Objects as well. Sculptures now and then.

Legend?! I prefere not focusing on that. I love to donate forms to wood using my hands, love the feeling of the wood, the use of tools. That's it. If we are really interested in something, we develope ways of expressign ideas, of learning, of increasing skills, of comunicating. To became someone known for your work is the result of being ones self into it, it's not a main goal.

I don't know. Maybe is to be yourself. To love what you do. Meaning, to have interest to learn and to explore investigating ideas, encouraging yourself to being adventurous.

Good design has a context. Is a design that meets needs. Be function, beauty, emotion... But, free from vanity.

oEbanista, my studio, was created by my self on 2007."Ebanista" means woodworker, in portuguese. The name "oEbanista" came up after a newspaper article about my work, titled "o ebanista". Which means: the woodworker.My company is located in Nova Friburgo, a very nice city, with fresh weather and green mountains, 2 hours away from Rio. It is a small city with great woodworking tradition.

To design for me means doing something I am inspired to do, in the most conscious and well crafted manner. For me, designing and making are not apart.

I love to build things out of wood. I like the feeling and the touch of wood. Usually I build seats and chairs, but not only that. I love organic forms, shapes that attracts us to touch.

I love chairs. Specially wooden chairs. But I love other things too, like tools. I like kitchens tools, woodworking tools. Specially when they are hand tools. I love the feeling and the design of things made to be used by hand. They are so attractive.

A chair. I designed it to my company.

I am a designer but a craftsman. So I love wood and woodworking hand tools. But I love metal and glass and rocks too.

How can I say that... It can happens any time. I like very much when the sun is shining, and the day is fresh.I like a lot to be at my workshop. It's a place that inspires me very much. Inspirations usually takes place when I'm working with wood, using the tools I like the most, touching the wood.

I would say the beauty and the form of the piece. But I think those are a result of something deeper in my objectives. So, I focus on doing something that has a good, a harmonic interaction with us, the users of the design.

I can have many kinds of emotions. Usually I feel very happy when I'm creating and crafting something I am inspired to do.

I feel happiness.

May be, to be created by someone who loves it, and to be found by someone who needs it.

My feeling about the piece.

To be sustainable is to be conscious. A designer must be as conscious as he or she can be.

My last exhibition was in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was happening until the 13th of March. Me, among others designers from Rio de Janeiro, at the Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro. The exhibition was called "o design a a madeira", meaning, "wood and design".Next one, may be this year in Rio Design Week, and I hope in Europe, in september. But it will be confirmed.

Inspirations comes from ideas, places, friends, but mostly from an inner inspiration. When I'm feeling well, centered, when I'm cool, this is when I usually have great inspirations. I really love to create at the workshop. It is there where many creations happens.

I entered the world of design because of my love for woodworking. So working with wood defines a lot my designs.But I usually don't give a style definition to my designs. They are an expression of my self, of my memories, and the things I love.I use a lot my hands to help me design. And I use my body too. We all have knowledge in our bodies. We must use them to make good designs. I have used chairs all my life, so, I can feel when I'm comfortable. That is what I do.

You know, for me, creating something, is expressing things that I lived, that I feel, that I do, that I like.So, if I am inserted in a culture, it is in what I design.I live In Brazil. And there are so much more things to see and to feel, than the ocean I love, the sky I see, the mountains that inspires me. When I lived in Italy, that atmosphere was part of me.What I design is a expression of what I am.I learned woodworking in Italy, developed it in France, and produce it here in Brazil.All of that makes part of my designing.

When I design, I usually draw the idea first. But some times the idea shows it self when I'm working with a hand tool or by looking to a piece of wood that I find very interesting at the workshop.What I mean is that not every detail of a creation comes from a previous thought. Some times my hands and the tools I am using influences the design. One good example of that, are the "Sela" stools I have created in 2014.

I'm going to say something that helped me a lot: do it with love.

To embrace your ideas and to be awake.

I really love talking about tools. My tools are mostly woodworking tools. Such as: chisels, saws, planers. And of course pencils and rulers too.But you know, when talking about tools, many things comes to mind. My hands are important and very fine tools to my work. My body as well, it is such an important tool for a well made ergonomic design.So, in a way, my hands and body are at the same time extremely precise instruments and also amazing sources of inspiration too.

Time management is not my specialty.

I can take from weeks to months. It depends a lot on the idea, if the workshop is suited to producing it.

I guess: How did you come to designing this particular piece?

Mostly my clients are particulars.

I enjoy very much chairs.

I mainly develop my designs my self.

By Phone, email, website, by post and social media, such as Facebook and Instagram. Just look for "oebanista".