Ian Laval

Ian Laval has been designing and making furniture since 1970. He began in northwest England and now has a workshop at Brentwood Bay on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. His furniture is the product of native timber -- mainly hardwoods like Garry and white oak, walnut, Pacific and eastern maple and occasionally BC fir and red and yellow ce... dar. He has been intensively involved in felling and processing his own wood for most of his career. Designs are influenced by the nature of indigenous wood and are often evolutions of traditional forms, with careful use of proportion and emphasis on functionality. An essential element is the connected nature of design, which suggests that man-made things in everyday life should reflect our evolving lives and environment: the past and the present as well as the future. These are the things that survive to tell the stories of cultures. Each piece is made by traditional hand processes, one at a time. Only solid timber is used. Joints are mortice-and-tenon and dovetails are cut by hand. Ian Laval has always worked single-handed. His speciality is the frequent use of sawn veneers taken from the same local trees and processed in the workshop. Ian Laval welcomes commissions and normally keeps a stock of finished furniture for sale. Items can be shipped world-wide. Visitors are welcomed.Read More