Derek Hennigar

"I find the possibilities of wood to be an endless source of fascination and joy."

Furniture is what makes shelter a home, and one's home is equal parts function and aesthetic. Derek Hennigar designs and builds furniture with these aspects in mind. Structure and finish are employed to express wit and finesse in his functional sculptural work.

Hennigar's bentwood table bases update the age-old technique of steam-bending in service to the expression of line in three dimensions. Multiple layers of thin oak are laminated in series to make structures with high strength-to-weight ratios, while juxtaposing geometric figures with loops in a continuous line.

While studying engineering at North Carolina State University, Hennigar first apprenticed as an interior carpenter and then as a cabinetmaker. All the while, he was self-educating in furniture design and technique. He was influenced early on in his hometown of Asheville, North Carolina, by the Appalachian craft tradition, 20th century sculptors and furniture designers, and his disdain for the mass-produced nature of the North Carolina furniture industry.