tie sofa 2024

We decided to discontinue the previous tie sofa 2018 in 2022.  

The reason was that it was difficult to manufacture as a product in many ways. For one thing, it was such a hard work to carve out the backrest. 15kg of wood blocks were carried by hand and pushed to the machine until carved down to 5kg. Even though I have confidence in my stamina, when finishing the 1.5 hour of this labor, my hands shook, and it was difficult to grab even a pencil.  

Then backrests were assembled with frames, and blades and planes were used for the hand finishing. High quality techniques were needed to complete the curve of a wide face without any distortion, and sometimes when the complex grains emerged, I felt at a loss. Also, we needed to stock materials with extra width for this chair, but it was difficult to obtain these in a regular basis. 

So, these were the reasons we stopped making this sofa. 

But after two years, tie sofa made a revival, in a more difficult way. Is it because 'vows made in storms are forgotten in calms'? or 'time is a great healer'? When a new design popped up in my head, I couldn't stop but to draw a full-scale drawing and prepare actual parts for the sofa. I knew I had some special wood material ready, so I was more than prepared.  

It almost felt like going surfing on a stormy day and facing a big wave that I could barely handle. I felt anxious and the thrill at the same time, because I knew that bigger the challenge, bigger the joy of conquering. 

Challenging tie sofa after two years, gave me a lot of new awareness too. Recently, I was worried that my growth as a craftsman has hit the ceiling, but skills to design, techniques in using tools and even things like aesthetic senses had grown drastically in these years. It was like someone telling me that I still have a lot to learn and haven't reached the point to be anxious. And it also tought me that this work of mine, making funitures are still the very exciting thing in my life.