Firstly I must thank everyone in the ASEAN community that has made nice comments on my first 2 posts. It makes me feel very encouraged to post more stories and show more of my projects that I have going on here for 2022.
I mentioned before that we source reclaimed teak as much as we can from local communities around the country. This video was done by a film maker friend just before Covid - we filmed it when I was in the north of Thailand visiting a teak dealer - normally I don't like to purchase teak like this as I worry that the original source owners did not receive their fair share of the income. In this case I didn't buy any from them but they were gracious enough to let us film when I visited.
The range in the video is something I designed a while ago and called it the "Phuket Range". My idea was it should seem like the decking of a sailing boat. I wanted to design a range of furniture that was kind of a reflection of what tropical Phuket lifestyle can be like - I know most people don't own a yacht but longtail boats and sailing boats have been part of the landscape since tourists first arrived. So thats where the decking idea came from. This was before I had built my own furniture workshop with my family so at that time I had to find a factory in Bangkok to make the furniture - in the end it was very expensive and we couldn't make to much profit. But I have now started making these pieces at our own place and many people have bought different items.
Being able to handsketch the furniture before marking it up on auto-cad is really key for me. It helps the carpenters to understand the look and feel of what I'm trying to create and saves us a lot of time. It also helps the clients to understand what the items could look like before they commit to engaging us to build custom pieces. Even just a rough sketch with some quick colour is often enough.
I simply love working with old old teak. It has so many unique features and no two pieces are the same. I'm glad however that now in Thailand we have a complete ban on the logging of old teak. Most teak furniture is made from new teak grown on plantations. This is OK but nothing can compare to the character of old reclaimed teak. The industry of logged timber is very regulated in Thailand and of course our wonderfully corrupt government officials are watching ever piece of wood to make sure they get their dirty hands on as much money as they can with made up fines and fees....:)
Next post I will show you our newest range of furniture that we have just completed - also from teak but this time plantation teak. Thanks for reading and thanks again for all nice comments from everyone on my other posts.....:)