Bringing wood to life

Through building functional sculpture, work that serves both a sculptural aesthetic and utilitarian function, Erik Wolken seeks to create rhythm and poetry in each of the pieces he makes.

When asked about his journey to becoming a furniture maker, Erik Wolken tells me that he never intended to become a woodworker; in fact, this was something of a chance discovery. While roaming the stacks of books at his University library one day, he came across Wendell Castle’s publication on stacked laminated furniture construction and was intrigued by the notion of building useful pieces from wood. This sparked a desire to proceed to find more books of the same ilk and the rest, as they say, is history.

It all began in 1961 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Erik was born and grew up. Some 22 years later he received his BA in Geography and spent the spring of 1988 studying Furniture Design at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania before going on to spend the autumn and winter of 1988/89 in the Programme of Fine Woodworking at Haywood Community College in Clyde, North Carolina. From 1989 to 1995 he worked as a cabinetmaker for Woodpecker Enterprises in Apex, North Carolina, before going on to open his own studio, where he has been working on private commissions and showing his work nationally ever since.