How did you come up with the specific interlocking patterns for Craftedsystems? What is the process of creating a piece look like?

Craftedsystems is a forum for experimentation. My intent was to create something using technological/design innovation aligned with handcraft. The first products I created were from felt, and they involve a very simple system of slots and tongues whereby the felt locks into itself without need for stitching or mechanical fasteners. I also turned the system inside out, so that the part people normally wouldn’t want to look at becomes the visual identity for the product line. The process is simply an interative process of creating new geometries and patterns, and seeing which ones are simple to produce and result in an aesthetically pleasing form.

When you made your the first Craftedsystems pieces, why was felt your choice of material? 

I selected felt for its inherent organic quality; felt is made from pressed wool, and was the very first textile man ever created. Its beautiful thickness and solidity was what attracted me to it; it is both solid and surface simultaneously. The fact it could be structural and flexible is what intrigued me to vessels and voids.

There’s something about your work that makes one want to reach out and touch it – to feel the texture and try and understand how all the pieces fit together. Was this intentional?

This is perhaps resultant of the fact I wanted to incorporate handcraft as a distinct design element; the fact that no machine could produce what these people are able to weave.