Cameron Barnes Furniture
Furniture - Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
Cameron Barnes Furniture Employees
Cameron Barnes Furniture Details
Making everything by hand can sometimes be slow, imperfect and limiting and yet there is a growing global move away from mass-production. As our lives become more digital in many areas, it seems we're looking for more tangible and tactile objects in others. We think there is beauty to be found in the marks made by hands, chisel strokes and file marks, and in the imperfect. Our wood sources are limited to local 'alien' timber species. Originating in foreign climates, they grow in ways not suited to the local environment. We purposely avoid all imported and local indigenous varieties. It's not to say that both can't be done right, it's just they often aren't. In a similar way, we avoid all composite timbers such as plywood or OSB. In almost all cases, they come from far away and use harmful chemicals in their manufacturing, which can leach into the air. The ethic of design for dis-assembly, or 'cradle to cradle' design, means the materials which make up our pieces are able to live through constant cycles of use and adaptation, without down-cycling or effectively meeting their end. Think of it as a round-about, rather than a cul-de-sac. We believe in this ethic enough to say that if a piece outlives its utility, rather than throwing it away, you can bring it back to us and we'll buy it back, at the value of the raw materials. With a little creative thinking, and no shortage of hard work, that material will leave our workshop in a new form, for a new owner.
