Marcus Sly - Furniture Making and Design

I often say that I hope my furniture has a sense of soul, and will help people create soulful places.  Soul is a tricky word to pin down.  Thomas Moore writes:

It is impossible to define precisely what the soul is.... we know intuitively that the soul has to do with genuineness and depth.... it is tied to life in all its particulars - good food, satisfying conversation, genuine friends, and experiences that stay in the memory and touch the heart.

The soul also has to do with the imagination, dreams, and intuition.  It is related to our uniqueness and character.  It is connected to the earth and a grounded, rather than ascendant, spirituality.  It is through the soul that we find a sense of connection with life.  Moore suggests that "loss of soul" is "the great malady of the twentieth century".  As life has become more superficially stimulating, efficient and comfortable (at least in affluent countries) there has been a corresponding loss of appreciation of, or perhaps of the time to appreciate and nurture, those things which make for a meaningful life.

As a woodworker I am particularly concerned with the soul of places.   To flower fully as individuals we need support and inspiration - not just from each other, but from the places we live in and the things we use.  These need to have detail, depth, richness, variety, quirkiness and character.   A house, for example, can be more than just a shelter, or a place to display status, or a container for the lives of individuals and families.  It can feed our imagination, embody and give depth to our lives, relationships, interests and passions.  David Whyte  touched on this when he wrote:

This is the bright home
in which I live
this is where I ask my friends to come
this is where I want
to love all the things
it has taken me so long
to learn to love

There is no house
like the house of belonging²

Timber, like all natural materials, has qualities which make it ideally suited to be crafted into things which embody soul: the mixed randomness and order of the grain; its warmth, tactile quality and sensuousness; the ease with which it can be shaped by, and carry the mark of, the human hand. As woodworkers we can take the time to become sensitive to, and to appreciate, the quality of soul as we meet it in ourselves and our surroundings.  It seems to me that we can offer something to people which is badly needed and which mass production struggles to offer: things with richness, quirkiness, individuality, diversity and imagination.  Living creations that feed the soul.  This seems to me more worthwhile than technical virtuosity for its own sake.

¹Care of the Soul, Thomas Moore, Piatkus, 1992

² The House of Belonging, David Whyte, Many Rivers Press, 2004