There are few things in life I like better than to work with wood. To design novel pieces, shape wood, read its grain patterns, match colours and different species is like writing poetry or making a painting.
I have been designing and making furniture and cabinetry since the early 1980's and started MapleArt, a high-end custom furniture business in Maple Ridge, BC, Canada, in 2003, after working in the wireless telecommunications field in research and development and corporate management for 25 years.
My work has been purchased by clients in North America, Europe and Japan.
As a graduate of the School of Industrial Arts in Bern, Switzerland, with further studies in Burgdorf, Switzerland, and Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, I bring a rigorous and exacting engineering approach to furniture design and joinery. I also appreciate that creativity and artistic expression is a gift and a talent which I am continuously learning to exploit. My great grandfather was a wood worker, building - among other things - a church door (still standing) in Gurbru, Switzerland in 1860. Born in Chile to Swiss parents, I immigrated to Canada in 1974, and now live in Maple Ridge, since 1977, in the log house I built with my wife.
Dear Andres,
Thank you for the nice beds and night tables you designed and made for our boys. With the inlays and interesting grain, they look great. We really appreciated the walk into the forest to show the boys where the tree for their beds grew.
Tim, Coquitlam, BC.
Thank you for the nice beds and night tables you designed and made for our boys. With the inlays and interesting grain, they look great. We really appreciated the walk into the forest to show the boys where the tree for their beds grew.
Tim, Coquitlam, BC.
In my work, I try to achieve the highest quality possible at every level, in what is visible and what is hidden, and to create unique pieces that can be handed down for generations.
For me, beauty lies in simplicity and I believe that it is “seen” on two levels: the conscious and subconscious. At the conscious level there is form, function, colour, surface finish, texture, matched wood grain. At the subconscious level we recognize direction of the grain, same tree wood and finally the love that was put into the piece during its creation. For instance, the legs of my chairs, tables and beds are oriented in the direction a tree grew, resulting in truly holistic or organic pieces.
Wherever possible, I let the wood speak, and I enjoy designing pieces that incorporate pleasant curves and the combination of wood with glass. I work with any wood my customers’ desire, but prefer the hardwoods from the renewable northern temperate forests, particularly maple, cherry and black walnut.