Sawkille Co. is recognized for its designs and its quality of craftsmanship. Sawkille Co. was founded by Jonah Meyer and Tara De Lisio with the intention, simply put, to participate in this good world in a good way, and to create products and a work environment that reflect the value of human effort and creative vision. At their workshop and headquarters in Kingston and Rhinebeck, New York, respectively, all pieces are handcrafted using sustainably forested material and the production shop is a no-waste facility. All the wood utilized in their production comes from the surrounding forests, and pieces are often finished and hand rubbed using beeswax or Danish oil. A local potter is provided leftover sawdust to fuel his firings, and unused stumps of waste trees are upcycled into the modern yet understated furnishings Sawkille has become so known for. Some of Sawkille’s signature finishes include ebonized walnut, bleached maple, blackened steel, indigo dye and playful inlays of brass or abalone shell.
Each piece is made with the belief that its character will improve with time and use. The modern rusticity of the Sawkille’s handcrafted pieces is elegantly functional and durable. Sawkille Co.’s design aesthetic is taken from traditional, experimental, and personal frameworks. A deep appreciation and study of the historic has allowed them to learn and develop their distinct furniture expression, which they classify as part of rural American design movement. The hand of the craftsman is seen in all of Sawkille Co.’s pieces, yet the sleek, refined craftsmanship shines through. Each Sawkille Co. chair is objet d’art, the result of careful historical study and disciplined prototyping. Their clean lines harken back to the Bauhaus, while their material and functional design nod to classic American furniture making. Other objects are more playful, seemingly taken from the pages of a fairytale, or from folk art. From this cross-pollination of influences Sawkille Co.’s designs reflect their unique stories, symbols, and associations, specializing in designs inspired by the heritage and community of New York’s Hudson Valley.
Their co-founder Jonah Meyer reflects, "People are very familiar with Shaker-style furniture, but I study their entire lives--their lifestyle and ability to do things well. And I'm from Pennsylvania so I studied George Nakashima and Wharton Esherick. These guys are dead, the Shakers are done, but they all left an open-ended catalog of American furniture to improve upon."
Meyer is the owner, designer and artist behind Sawkille Co., and has a background in fine art painting and sculpture, as well as woodworking. His identity as an artist was formed in the fields of Pennsylvania, where creativity and artistry met face on with the practicalities of homesteading in the seventies. Meyer sensed early on that being an artist was his true path, and was encouraged by his parents, a potter and a goldsmith who were pursuing their dreams of homesteading and respective crafts. Meyer graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design and moved to the Hudson Valley, where he generated his own version of sustaining life through art. Meyer sold his first chair design to one of his art school professors, which fueled further exploration of chairs, first with twigs and roots and heavily organic shapes. Twenty years later, the crisp vocabulary of Sawkille Co. has emerged en force.