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The Boggs Collective is rooted in sustainability education
Matt Rose
To slide into his “Classic Rocking Chair” is to exhale, take a load off, body and soul. To settle into his “Sonus Guitar Chair” is to welcome contemplation, perhaps make the acquaintance of the muse. The heightening of the senses that occurs when we surround ourselves with the beauty of nature seems to happen spontaneously when interacting with Brian Boggs’ furniture designs. But it’s the result of something — an entire process, in fact — that’s quite intentional.
“It’s taking a tree apart and putting it back together in a way that physically comforts clients when they sit. It’s including all sorts of elements that support that feeling. Aesthetically, the process of welcoming and comforting starts from ten feet away,” says Boggs.
For Boggs, an exquisite chair, a table, a bed (or any piece of studio furniture) is the natural outcome of a process that places at its core reverence for trees, for wood, for the environment. From sourcing lumber from urban forests to designing tools that respond to the nuances of different types of wood to lavishing attention on design details, Boggs brings intentionality to bear at each step. Working in a way in which his values are aligned with his business model has brought professional success and personal satisfaction, says Boggs. But his values also include collaboration and positive change, he says — and his success won’t be complete until he has passed on what he’s learned to help change the field of woodworking for the better.
To that end, Boggs and partner Melanie Moeller, an organizational-change consultant, started the Boggs Collective in 2010. The ambitious effort is part design studio, part workshop; part boutique lumber yard, part learning lab. And Boggs and Moeller hope it will become a model for others in their field.
The workshop involves local woodworkers who help produce Boggs’ furniture designs and collaborate on custom projects. Collective members Michael Waldeck, Gary Van Rawlins, Seth Weizenecker, Susan Link, Melissa Engler and Russell Gale are all accomplished craftspeople in their own right and have their own furnituremaking businesses. But being part of the Collective allows them not only to earn income, but to share tools, learn techniques from and inspire one another. While each specializes in a certain type of furniture, Moeller says that they’ve recently cross-trained their peers to increase their versatility. “Better processes emerge by sharing knowledge and working together. That kind of thing happens every day here,” she notes.
The woodshop is an outgrowth of Boggs’ and Moeller’s efforts to promote the use of local, sustainably harvested lumber and increase local woodworkers’ access to lumber that’s been FSC (Forest Stewardship Council)-certified — the gold standard of timber certification. Boggs works with the forester on Biltmore Estate and other local sources to collect trees that have fallen and put them to use. “We’re trying to get logs into the marketplace and out of the landfill,” he explains.
The teaching-mentoring aspect of the Collective is perhaps the part that’s closest to Boggs’ heart. As a co-founder of the nonprofit Greenwood, he has spent time working with indigenous craftsmen in Peru and Honduras to bring training, woodworking technology and sustainable-forestry practices to their communities. Boggs travels to speak and teach and also holds classes and workshops in Asheville, attracting students from all over the country.
And finally, there’s the design. “I think there’s a deep human need to be creative and to make things that express who we are,” he says. “We’ve gone from a period when that was the norm to a time when everyone’s looking for cheaper and cheaper ways to make things. That’s a losing game. We lose the connection to what it is to be creative.” Passing that personal creative energy onto the end user is a key goal of the Collective’s work. “It’s important that the passion we feel for what we do is felt by our clients. Without having patrons to share it, it’s like singing in the shower.”
Boggs admits that the idea of investing in a thoughtfully and lovingly made piece of handcrafted furniture is not for everyone. But increasing awareness of the benefits of doing so is another important goal. “One of the biggest challenges for us as a collective is to create a community of connoisseurship. In the same way that you can enjoy a fine wine the more you know about it, you can improve your ability to appreciate fine furniture.”
The Collective recently celebrated its first birthday with a party to which virtually every woodworker in the area was invited. The energy at the celebration was electric, says Moeller. “Not everybody has to be part of a collective. But coming together as a group strengthens ties and helps us figure out how we can support each other. And together we can revitalize the studio-furniture industry in Western North Carolina.”
The Boggs Collective is located at 8 London Road, Asheville. Contact them at 828-398-9701 or visit their website at boggscollective.com.
