About Studio Furniture Artist Joseph L. Stearns

Fine woodworking has been my lifelong passion. I learned the fundamentals from my father, an engineer and wood technologist and an amateur woodworker. After my father passed away and I inherited his tools, I began learning more on my own through extensive reading, hands-on experience and networking with other furniture craftsmen.

My formal education was in liberal arts with a major in city planning (B.A., Rutgers) and urban design (Masters in Architecture, Virginia Tech.) That gave me a solid background in the fundamentals of aesthetics and form that are the underpinnings of my furniture design.

Joe Stearns Handcrafted Furniture

Throughout my career as an urban planner, I became an increasingly serious amateur craftsman specializing in fine woodworking, and in 1999 decided to pursue studio furniture full-time.

Because I am mostly self-taught, I am free to design in broader parameters than had I been trained as a protege of some established master. This, I believe, has allowed me to follow my own inclinations and achieve more creative and original designs. For examples, browse through the gallery of works featuring foyer or hall benches, handcrafted wood clocks, and unique coffee tables.

I call my handcrafted furniture pieces "contemporary" for lack of a better term. While they are grounded in time-honored principles of form and proportion, they, by intent, transcend the dictates of any particular school or style of furniture making. My work is mostly inspired by a deeply held belief that man-made objects derived from and consistent with the aesthetics of the natural environment are the most fundamentally pleasing. I also believe in elegant simplicity. Arbitrary shapes added on to a well-conceived design usually only result in a cluttered appearance. Thus my handcrafted furniture pieces are characterized by a clean organic flow of lines and curves, correctly proportioned to the geometry of the piece.

~ Joseph L. Stearns