Eric Wallner

I consider English my second language: the first is seeing. Or more accurately, visualizing.

At an early age I discovered that it was more fun to build the things I wanted than to buy them. While often this was motivated by insufficient funds, making things taught me patience, craftsmanship, even perseverance, but mostly it taught me how things work. Over time I found that unrelated projects like building airplanes or learning to sew had the marvelous tendency to cross pollinate each other with new skill sets making future builds more creative and better. It opened my eyes to the possibility of using materials and construction methods in unexpected ways. And I could take on increasingly more complicated projects that actually worked — like telescopes, airplanes, or a quirky, complex house.

Before formal schooling in Design my interest was, and is, in the natural world. I painted birds and ground mirrors for telescopes to study astronomy. Post high school I attended Design school to be an illustrator while almost simultaneously building two ultralight airplanes. One was used for aerial advertising to finance my projects and provide more free time to pursue them. First attempts at furniture design combined lessons from aircraft construction with Bucky Fuller’s geodesic domes — I built some truly wacky tube and cable-braced tensegrity chairs. There was also a lightweight 4x5” film view camera milled from scrap aircraft aluminum, used for Nature photography. A structural truss design normally used to support aircraft gas tanks inside wings was mimicked to stiffen the camera while keeping it light. The camera is a joy to make photographs with and I still use it occasionally today. Again, skills and insights acquired while building one project were applied to others with good effect.

Working as a furniture designer-builder my focus is primarily with comfort. I seek clean forms, novel structure, and economical use of materials. I have avoided traditional joinery and its associated somewhat limiting furniture styles because I enjoy the challenge of working within my own specific skill set and tools to create something new. My Table & Chairs is a good example of this. I’d like to think that its core success as a functional design stems from the clarity of the design — comfort first, and the intentional removal of the unnecessary.

Customers tell me how their table and chairs plays a central role in their family life, how easily friends relax around it after dinner, how their children prefer doing homework at theirs. It is incredibly gratifying to learn my labored handiwork has become a cherished part of other people’s lives.

Be well,

Eric J. Wallner Dodgeville, Wisconsin, USA