The Nature and Art of Workmanship: Reflections from the Bench

I was recently lent The Nature and Art of Workmanship by David Pye, courtesy of Philip Koomen. Though first published in 1968, the book feels incredibly relevant to a world increasingly filled with the uniformity of mass production. As a bespoke furniture maker working in Oxford, the questions it raises about design, skill, and material honesty go right to the heart of what I try to achieve in my own studio.

At the core of Pye’s thinking is a powerful definition:

“Workmanship is the use of any technique or apparatus in which the quality of the result is not predetermined, but depends on the judgment, dexterity and care which the maker exercises as he works.”

He calls this the “workmanship of risk.” It stands in stark contrast to the “workmanship of certainty” that underpins industrial manufacturing. In mass production, outcomes are predetermined and reproducibility is everything. But when making custom wood furniture by hand, there is always an ongoing dialogue between the maker, the material, and the evolving piece.

Free Workmanship in Practice

Many of the pieces I make - whether a solid walnut desk or a piece of wall art for the living room - involve risk in the making. There are typically no jigs (or these are made especially when needed for a particular task) or industrial tolerances to fall back on, just hand tools, intuition, and experience.

My walnut office desk, for example, began with a single slab of English walnut. To ensure its long-term stability without compromising the design, I used locking dovetails to fix internal bearers - hidden joinery that relies entirely on accuracy and technique. The bark was broken off with a hammer and the edges carefully sanded to follow the natural undulations of the wood. This kind of bespoke desk design isn’t just shaped by workmanship - it is workmanship, brought to life through hands-on decision-making at every stage.

Similarly, my Jesmonite wall panels - made entirely by hand and inspired by kelp forests - are direct expressions of nature’s irregularity. The carved patterns move and sway like plant life beneath the waves. We appreciate nature and natural beauty because it is the opposite of uniform and this is why I aim to produce organic furniture and not just in form but in process.

There’s a Japanese aesthetic called sabi, a love of imperfection as a measure of perfection. It’s a reminder that variability is not a flaw - it's the very thing that makes a piece come alive. Whilst the furniture and carved Jesmonite panels that I produce may not be perfect, it is precisely this attribute that gives them their most important and intangible quality. To quote Ruskin:

“the demand for perfection is always a misunderstanding of the ends of art”.

Truth to Material in custom wood furniture

Pye also writes compellingly about "truth to materials" - the idea that wood should look and feel like wood. It should show its grain, its pits and striations. It should wear with age and speak of its origins. A wooden desk with a mirror-smooth, lacquered finish might look sleek, but it loses the tactile connection to the tree it came from. Whether it’s the depth of walnut grain or the quiet elegance of a handmade living room piece, I believe good design begins with listening to the material.

Why Workmanship Still Matters

Pye argues that the crafts will only survive where there is demand for the very best quality, regardless of cost. That’s certainly true in my own practice. As an independent maker of custom wood furniture, I cannot compete with mass production on price, but I can offer something else: individual care, tailored designs, and an attention to detail in the making that machines cannot replicate.

As Pye says, “Instructions are always incomplete.” It is the maker who interprets and finishes the piece - who gives it life.

This is what clients come to me for - not just a product, but something meaningful and well made. The texture of the wood, the subtle variations in hand-carved detail, the slight softness in a sculpted curve - these are the hallmarks of custom furniture that comes from a human hand.