Furniture designer Kate Duncan has relocated her Vancouver practice to Etobicoke.Supplied
The journey toward becoming a maker is often circuitous and full of false starts. Other times, a single life-changing event can reveal your true calling. The latter was the case for Kate Duncan, a Vancouver Island-born furniture designer who found her path after a motorcycle accident took her out of commission for over a year. As a way to get back in shape, she set herself up in a studio space and started to create. Eight years later, she’s developed a following for what she calls “heirloom-quality furniture” while becoming the ringleader for a group of Canadian creators discovering their own passion for design.
Before her accident, Duncan had been a high-school shop teacher. In 2012, she decided to take up woodworking full time, making pieces she describes as “cheesy.” “I had no design aesthetic,” she says. “I was very much obsessed with my craft, so everything was over-woodworked. Dovetails everywhere.” Today, Duncan’s pieces are quite the opposite – bold, edgy and full of subtle contradictions: traditional while embracing a bit of millennial playfulness, graceful and polished but with a distinct maker’s touch. Seductive, too. “I’m very interested in how the curve of my pieces can be interpreted by the body in different ways,” she says.
Duncan's work is graceful and polished, but with a distinct maker’s touch.Supplied
Duncan’s most recent collection includes a statement-making black walnut bed with undulating, ribbed wooden waves and a surprise feature: weighted leather restraint straps with brass loops inspired by, of all things, the world of kink. Duncan dreamed up the feature after seeing a piece of performance art by her friend, contemporary artist Brandon Fernandes, which featured ropes and rings that ballet dancers moved through. “I’m always consulting with people who understand the body in different ways than I do,” she says. The feature is so subtle that it went relatively unnoticed by prospective buyers during a recent exhibition, save for an eight-year-old boy who asked Duncan what they were for. “I told him they were there to keep his dog close at night,” she says with a hearty laugh.
After years on the Vancouver scene, Duncan relocated her practice to a studio in Toronto’s Etobicoke neighbourhood. “I feel like I was an East Coaster living on the West Coast all this time,” she says. Six Points Studio is a membership-based woodworking shop that provides work space and training for aspiring makers. It’s her latest effort to level the playing field of the design community.
Duncan's work is seductive. She says she's 'very interested in how the curve of my pieces can be interpreted by the body in different ways.'Supplied
The first was Address. In 2014, Duncan launched the inclusive design show to provide an alternative point of view in furniture, fashion and beyond. “Coming onto the scene as a female-bodied queer furniture maker, I was not embraced,” she says. This past January, Address also relocated and was presented as part of the DesignTO festival at LightForm’s Toronto showroom. It was an instant hit.
Since launching the exhibition, Duncan has become a guiding light for those in the making community who don’t fit the traditional mould by creating a space that blurs art and commerce and places the focus on objects that convey meaning. “When I’m curating the makers into the show, the one thing I want to know is: What is your work saying to me?”
For all to see
A new shelving system brings your favourite clothing and accessories out from behind closed doors
Gus Modern has just released its first modular shelving system, called Branch.David Bagosy Photography/Supplied
Since Gus Modern was founded 20 years ago, its sofas and chairs have become an aspirational milestone for many young, style-savvy Canadians. Often framed with FSC-certified wood and upholstered in customizable fabrics, such as a proprietary vegan leather called AppleSkin, the seating, all designed in Toronto, says to the world: I’ve moved past my rickety, beer-stained vintage sofa and now have something much nicer to furnish my first adult loft.
Now, co-founder Amanda Schuler is trying to create the same benchmark in storage. Gus Modern’s first modular shelving system is called Branch because the interconnecting bays can literally branch out indefinitely across a room. “People are living in smaller spaces these days, sometimes in condos without closets,” says Schuler. “Our idea was to create an efficient storage solution, one that would look good, on its own, not be hidden behind closet doors.”
The pieces have no backs or sides, just shelves supported by slender ash posts.David Bagosy Photography/Supplied
Branch’s design refines crisp, mid-century-modern lines with softer, rounded edges. “It’s a bit more feminine that way,” says Schuler. There is no back or sides, just slender upright posts, made from either blond or black ash, that support the shelves with subtle steel brackets. The effect is an unobtrusive lightness that doesn’t add a lot of bulk, even as it adds a lot of storage.
The original version was just shelving – straight across, ash planks for books and potted plants. As a 2020 update, Schuler has added a host of accessories, including a mini-desk, makeup mirror, circular shelf for jewellery and bars to hang clothing. “People have nice things,” she says. “We’re trying to make storage that really showcases what people have.” Her thought is particularly pleasant during COVID-19 times. Going out to show off an outfit might not be possible. At least there’s a way to display it, art-like, at home.
Matthew Hague
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