Grant Sonnex | Contemporary Fine Furniture

Here’s a video describing the Land, Sea and Light project – a collection of fine furniture inspired by the St Davids peninsula in Pembrokeshire.

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I’m just back from the first field trip collecting photos and drawings for a new collection of furniture inspired by the cliffs and beaches of the Pembrokeshire coast.  It was spectacular, and included some enchanting seals! Read the rest of this entry »

I like it when I get the chance to show people round a piece of furniture and they go from just seeing it to really engaging with it.   So I’ve started recording some video tours of my furniture and including them on the gallery pages.

Many of these pieces have been months in the gestation and there’s usually a story to tell.   I hope you enjoy them. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s one of a series of “making of” videos now on the site.  A coffee table designed to sit between two comfy cream sofas in front of the fire in the drawing room of a Georgian manor house.  Read the rest of this entry »

A while ago, sitting on a bridge in my local nature reserve and listening to a particularly soulful blackbird,  I realized that birdsong could be a great source of inspiration for the visual design of my furniture.  Now I’m about to start work on the first of a series of “birdsong tables”. Read the rest of this entry »

I heard today that I have been accepted for associate membership of the Gloucestershire Guild of Craftsmen.  It means that my work will be appearing in their rather splendid summer show in Painswick (30/7 – 21/8.. well worth a visit) and that I should get the chance to meet other high quality designer/makers from a whole range of contemporary crafts…. a nice way to start the week.

Last year was the first that Wotton-under-Edge held an open workshop weekend for it’s artists and craftspeople.  It was a huge success with lots of enthusiasm and warmth from makers and visitors alike.  So, happily, it’s happening again.  June 11 and 12 from 10am. till 4 pm. each day. Read the rest of this entry »

Just wanted to let you know that the quintet of boxes I’ve been working on are now all done and photographed.  They are themed on times of day from dawn to dusk and I’ve made them from English yew, ripple sycamore, and walnut.  Read the rest of this entry »

Boxes are a sorbet for the furniture maker – they refresh the palate between heavier and more complex pieces.  But they are also a reminder of the fundamental qualities of wood which make it a unique and living medium. Read the rest of this entry »

It would be easy to think, looking at a calm and refined piece of furniture, that the experience of making it is equally calm and refined – a relaxed and measured series of steps that takes you from timber to table. Oh how wrong! What you see is the serene swimming swan, while under the surface……. Read the rest of this entry »