Nathan Clarke

James H McPherson Award for Woodworking

Nathan Clarke is a Toronto-based furniture maker, designer, and educator. He is a Craft & Design—Furniture graduate from Sheridan College and is presently a managing partner of the Canadian small-batch furniture brand Coolican & Company. As Director of Craft & Production for Coolican & Company, Nathan leads a small, dedicated team producing furniture that is proudly and purposefully made to last. In 2019, Nathan developed Toronto Woodturning—a subsidiary of Coolican & Co—creating custom and batch woodturnings for a diverse clientele. Toronto Woodturning has hit its stride by offering the exceptional quality of the bespoke turner with the production volume and price associated with industrial shops. Amidst the demands of these roles, Nathan still maintains a small personal practice focused on speculative work and fabrication for other designers.

In the past year, Nathan’s personal work has shifted focus from predominantly functionalist to an approach that sees him creating works purely for the joy of form exploration. Throughout this shift, Nathan has maintained his unwavering respect for finely crafted objects. His reverence for the act of making and all its minutiae is what originally drew him into his father’s workshop as a kid. All these years later, it is still what drives him into the studio everyday.

http://nathanclarkestudio.com

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