Wisconsin Life

I love waking up in the morning and coming to work. It sounds a little odd at first, but Richard Judd, the furniture maker,

is a lot like his work

minimal, simple-- You can use this as an arm rest like on this side, too. This is pretty good.

And above all else

functional. You kind of slide into it, too. I've always had the architecture mind of "form follows function." And I always took pride in that. I'm making art form, but they function. Richard has created a series of pieces that seem light and whimsical, and perhaps, even random. So it just looked like it was floating and blowing in the wind. But each piece is centered around an ancient mathematical concept. It's not just random, randomly-drawn, but very carefully drawn so it uses the golden rectangle. The golden rectangle is based on the golden ratio. A proportion often described as the hidden math behind beauty. It shows up in art, nature, and even the human body. Richard first used the golden ratio when designing his signature piece. I don't know what precipitated the idea, but I kept drawing a spiral table. And I based it on the geometry of a nautilus seashell. So it's the golden rectangle, the Fibonacci sequence of a spiral. It was a hit. The spiral table remains his best seller. And Richard has a mathematical formula for artistic success. Every time I try to create a new design, I'm hoping it's going to be that great design, but this one was really the home run. Richard's other calling card is the part of his work

that is perhaps most unlike him

exotic wood veneer. Yeah, this is my favorite, favorite wood. It's just got such a gorgeous depth of grain. It's Pomelle Sapele. It's from central West Africa. It's the flexibility of the veneer that allows Richard to create the curves in his work. With the more burled, swirling patterns, people will look, study it, and think that it's solid, that it wraps around. The final trick is to glue it all together and use vacuum pressure to make it stay true to form. Vacuum pressure is 14 pounds per square inch so it puts a totally even, flat pressure over the whole surface. As for new designs, the golden ratio goes on to infinity, but Richard only has 8 feet to work with. I'm also restricted to the length of the veneer and ply that I'm working with, which tends to be 8 feet. Sometimes a drawing, something will look great in a drawing, but it needs more than 8 feet. But I could-- I'm still coming up with designs within the restriction of just the bending the wood, bending the ply. Richard uses the golden ratio to make beautiful furniture-- Boy, that seems perfect. And a similar formula to enjoy life. Follow your bliss. And just what you would really enjoy and love doing for your day. The majority of our waking day is working, so to really love what you're doing is just a real gift.