RICK: He's far and above genius. He can see things, like out of the box, and
sit there and sketch it and then bring all these mediums together. You know, stone, metal,
wood. To bring all that together in one project, like that's not...
...normal.
He is truly an artisan, where the line between function and art disappear.
What he was doing in staircases, we hadn't seen done anywhere else.
It really takes it to a whole new level.
ALLEN: We have master woodworkers in the shop and sometimes they look at his designs
and scratch their heads and say, "How are we going to build that?"
I mean, it's amazing stuff.
Nobody else is doing that.
He submits projects every year and wins four out of five awards. So much they're, like,
"We got to get more categories so some other people can, you know, win."
Look, it's not my opinion. It's everybody's opinion.
This is a very special individual.
[birds chirping]
NATHIE: I think people have almost forgotten how to use wood.
It's used in such a basic form often, it's a forgotten sidelined material,
but it actually has a huge amount of opportunity.
ALLEN: What Nathie, in his designs, is trying to do is very much to bring back
the craft of stair building and to use joinery that's just not done that much anymore.
We're doing things with steam-bending where we bend woods and you get tension and you
get strength and we're using different types of materials for their different strength properties.
You know, within stairs, a lot of people are just buying stock parts.
We're actually designing each piece.
The jobs can take quite a while. We can work on the same project, easily, for a year.
A project we're doing right now has around 6,000 hours in it. Often, people think
of craftsmanship as an 1800's type of thing and it's kind of silly because we have amazing machinery.
With the aid of design software, there's really a great opportunity to do some
really mind-blowing stuff that that could've never been done before.
If you're going to build something and it's going to last for 200 hundred years
versus you're going to build something that's going to last for 10 years,
it's probably the most sustainable thing you can do.
You don't have the opportunity to create something wonderful if it's for just
a temporary moment.
I had an interest in sailing around the world
so I ended up going to boat building school kind of on a whim.
ALLEN: When he saw the workshop there with all the big woodworking machines, his eyes lit up.
When you're in the presence of a large piece that has, you know, sort of graceful curves
and is a beautiful abstract form, but made of beautiful materials, it just became really
captivating. I think that was the influential factor into kind of falling in love with wood
as a medium. It's kind of like jazz. It's something as you learn more about it, you
fall more in love with it.
There's not a lot of, like, good business models to model this off of.
It's not like, "Oh, let me go find the other super complicated
craftsmanship large company that's making amazing pieces and I'll just mimic their business."
And there's been some really rocky and scary times. Like, I started the business during
a recession. There was a couple of moments where I almost went bankrupt, but I certainly
feel like I could live in any situation.
I sleep standing up.
Yes, I sleep standing up. Yeah.
Whatever he's doing at that
time, he throws his entire body and soul into it.
Work for me is just my life. I think there's not that same blurry line, like, there's no
clocking out for me. It makes it very easy to sleep standing up when you're very tired.
I have to protect his magic
because he creates magic, and it's my job to make sure that the magic is grounded so
that we thrive and that he can continue to do it.
This is the moment to make our dent on earth and I didn't get into this out of an interest
in capitalism. I got into it out of an interest in craft.
You sort of represent a beautiful thing and there's so many people that work here that
are having the opportunity to push the limits on design
and be part of creating art in the modern world.
My employees are like family to me.
You know, it's really important for me to continue this tradition
and this craft and to enable an opportunity for that to continue to exist.
ALLEN: I don't think he's interested in keeping alive the tradition.
I think he's interested in restoring that tradition.
Our vision is to have a mastership and apprenticeship program. In Europe, there's a whole traditional
woodworking apprenticeship program, but in the States there's really nothing.
We're trying to set up a model that could then hopefully influence the woodworking culture in America.
When something is handcrafted and has this sort of energy going into it, people are trying
and striving to create something beautiful and when it's executed, it really is stunning.
I mean, why is the Eiffel Tower worthy of our attention and time? Why is it on a postcard?
Because, it's just a beautiful display of craftsmanship.
I would like to make the Eiffel Tower number two... absolutely.
It would be a wood version, obviously.