Owl Furniture
“I think this is similar with other artists, we need a place to start; a seed to inspire us. I was a sponge, I was gathering whatever I could to feed my passion. And I gravitated towards art nouveau, and art deco design, and I just had these styles that really attracted me. And so I started making things that had those influences, like maybe curvature, if I go back and look at my work from almost 40 years ago, I can see those influences in my work. And then as I progressed through my career, it began to morph and their is a phrase which is form follows function. So, the function of something is, can be the comfort, the technique in how it's built like functionally, making something you need to follow certain criteria and true techniques like a mortise and tenon or a dovetail joint. So, you have that certain technique and then the form follows that so I did a lot of form following function, and celebrating the actual technical function of furniture, which influenced my development as a craftsman, and I think one of those phases I went through was embracing the arts and crafts style of posing joinery,” stated Geoffrey Warner.
Owl Furniture began as a crazy idea formed by Geoffrey Warner, who is a Stonington resident, that his colleagues and friends thought would never come to life. Well, Geoff proved them wrong. He crafted a unique piece that not only looks beautiful with clean lines and smooth textured wood but that supports one's back.
“My dad was a very successful architect down in Rhode Island. And he had a lot of tenacity, that tenacity is what gave him his fame, and recognition. So I took my tenacity that I inherited from my old man and said, we can all do better than we've ever done. So what are we going to do everybody? Pick a project. My project was to come up with a stool. I want it to be economical. And I wanted it to support my community somehow, and I wanted it to support the environment. So I sort of created an idea. So I did, I designed a three legged stool that was comfortable. Each prong recognized one of those prongs of those philosophies. And so the stool that I designed was the owl stool. I was sitting on the seat, trying to develop something and I wanted to be really comfortable. And a regular seat when you sit on it. You feel your sit bones. You know the pressure. You should be sitting in an owl store. Prior to the owl school, I made a lot of wooden seats. So I said I'm a furniture maker. So if I'm going to make a seat, it's going to be wood. But sitting on a wooden seat without you know without some sort of comfort solution isn't as comfortable as it can be. So my imagination started working by inspiring my hands, my imagination inspired my hands to take some tools and, and carve two holes in the seat, which immediately relieve the pressure on my sit bones and carpet to, you know, to feel comfortable. Actually, I was relieving the seat and I never thought that the holes would go through the seat. But I then realize that holy smokes, so sit bones that we have in our body protrude down really far. They're called ischial tuberosities. So, the holes went right through the seat. And I had to carve it to make it look beautiful. And the guy that was working with me, Steve Curtis, at the time said, Jeff, it looks just like an owl,” said Geoff.
Geoff has a variety of different stools but all with the same owl concept. His stools are used for those who work in an office space, dentists and students attending school. He had to make some changes to his stools along the way to ensure that folks could adjust the height and easy maneuver in it.
Photographed by Frances Mahoney
Geoff building one of his arm chairs while Madison studies his work.
“One of the things that I've done to grow this business is to reach out and, and utilize companies and outside advisory to help grow the business. So we've worked with CEI coastal Enterprise Institute. We've received three grants from Maine Technology Institute. And one of the grants was to get an ergonomic study done early, probably four or five years into the owl furniture business. At that same time, we had been working with CCI to identify markets, and one of the markets was to pursue the dental industry. So in order to pursue the dental industry, we needed to develop a stool that had more lateral leg movement because a dentist will sit on a seat and their legs go out around the patient. So we developed a stool where the front was different from the Classic and it was identified as a Pro Owl for professionals,” said Geoff.
Owl Furniture hopes to continue growing its business as its seen such success in sales during the pandemic and Geoff hopes to turn over his business to Madison to keep it in the family. He’s finding that customers new and old are buying his stools due to working from home and trying to find a comfortable yet eye catching seat that they will enjoy for the long working from home days to come.
“Fortunately with technology, many people are able to do their work from home with a computer, you know, whatever devices they need, just like the way we're ‘zooming’ right now. You know, it's amazing. And so when people all of a sudden have to change their dynamics and work at home. And there they don't have an office, they don't have an ergonomic chair, they don't have a desk. They remembered our furniture, because they knew about us and started ordering ergonomic workstations and adjustable desks and stools. So we've been really busy outfitting people and giving them healthy posture and mobility, for working at home,” says Geoff.
Geoff also recently received a patent for his Ergo Pro stool and hopes to get these products manufactured at a higher scale as it is made out of recyclable materials and many wholesalers such as schools and dentists would enjoy having a stool like this.
“I've sort of dreamt about developing the pro out of an injection molded material. Of course, what comes to mind is plastic. So the go to material is polypropylene. And you can have additives. So I looked into, well, what can we do to honor the environment. And the first idea was, well, I live in a lobstering community. So there's tons of wasted pot warp and, you know, polypropylene, polyethylene, lobster rope. And I actually had a picture when I was first starting, I got a grant to do an economic study, a feasibility study. And the image for that grant was me going to the dump and standing on top of a pile of of junky, you know, leftover, discarded lobster, lobster rope, with an owl stool in one hand, and my dog on the other hand, and so I had this dream, I said, Yeah, we'll just take, the material that's here that's being wasted, and we'll go get it washed, and we'll get it turned into our stools. And it's not that easy. The whole plastic industry is incredibly complicated. And you really need to follow on the stream of what is efficient, and in the economy and dynamics and politics of plastic in this country. It's amazing how complex it is. I realized that we need to work with a company and buy their material. So we found a company called Green Dot and they're in Kansas, and they make bio plastic which is made from grown matter. And they also make recycled plastic post consumer plastic and they make a wood composite plastic which is a post consumer polypropylene that they add wood fiber to and we focused into the wood composite of recycled plastic. And so we wrote a grant last fall, and on to develop this injection molded, recycled pro alloy seat, and we named it the Ergo Pro,” says Geoff.
Photographed by Frances Mahoney
Madison sands down the wood so the texture is smooth as can be.
Photographed by Frances Mahoney
The owl shaped like stool is quite fascinating as it relieves the weight in the sit bones allowing for a more comfortable seat position.
Stonington and Maine is very close to Geoff’s heart as it has been a part of his life and continues to be a part of his life. When he is not working he enjoys sailing but he hasn’t had much free time as he is focused on crafting his pieces and teaching Madison.
“I think made in Maine has a national, if not international recognition. And I think people really respect people, the makers and designers and artists that are in Maine. You know, and maybe it's because, like, I remember when I moved here, and I lived in Rhode Island, I still remember the feeling of when I first was driving up to look for a place to settle. I remember from Rhode Island, it was always 567 hours coming up here. And I remember getting to Portland and saying, Well, I'm in Maine, you know, right over the New Hampshire border. I'm in Maine, but then there's another four hours to get to here. And I say, wow, now I really feel like I'm in Maine. So I think everybody has that feeling from a way, you know, South Lake away from really away from Maine, that, wow, those people are up their making a living. I really respect that. Those winters, man, those winters, the wind and the cold and the fog and the the desolation and the isolation and how can they do it? That's remarkable,” says Geoff.