Trey Jones
Furniture maker
Washington, DC, USA
A nerikomi approach to woodwork
- Trey harnesses the diversity in colours from salvaged wood to create collectible pieces
- His work revolves around the layering of strips and carving of wood
- He sketches and models, but leaves room for the material to lead
From his Washington, DC studio, Trey Jones builds a furniture practice of striking individuality on the remnants of plywood and veneer. Hands-on and exacting, he layers and laminates offcuts into intricate three-dimensional compositions, then carves through them to bring the underlying arrangement to the surface in pattern and form. The tables, cabinets and benches made by Trey move between architectural order and biomorphic shape, their tactile surfaces recalling woven structures and topographic contours, with bands of colour and ombré effects. His early training as a painter remains visible in the work. “Pattern, imagery, composition and repetition are central to my work,” he says. "Furniture making brings me closer to painting again.”
INTERVIEW
I had been collecting and experimenting with plywood offcuts for months, without finding an approach that satisfied me. One day, while delivering furniture to a client, I saw a nerikomi ceramic vessel and everything clicked. In nerikomi, strips of clay are stacked into blocks and sliced to reveal pattern; I realised I could apply the same principle to plywood. Once I began carving and sculpting it, unexpected patterns, forms and images emerged.
Traditional woodworking is still part of everything I do: the glue-ups, the joinery, the hand carving, even when you no longer see those steps in the finished piece. I respect tradition, without being dogmatic.
I always loved drawing and painting, but furniture let me bring expression into daily work. Growing up around my father’s workshop, I learned to make things by hand. Furniture joined both impulses: creating freely and making something concrete.
I like when people tell me what they see in a piece, because it is rarely what I saw while making it. People have read the dresser as pillows, clouds, water, blankets or stone. The work is specific in how it is made, but open in how it is read.
Trey Jones
Furniture maker
Washington, DC, USA
AVAILABILITY
By appointment only
PHONE
+1 9127136294
LANGUAGES
English
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