Joe Kennedy puts down his sanding block and runs his hand along the wood grain of the iroko door perched atop his workbench. With its clean lines and very evident heft, it wouldn鈥檛 disgrace a hall in Middle Earth or King鈥檚 Landing.
鈥淭here鈥檚 an old saying that you 鈥榣ook with your fingertips鈥 when it comes to working with wood, and that is absolutely true,鈥 says Joe, his voice rising above the soundscape of industrial saws and air hoses of the joinery in Falmouth. 鈥淚t is such a warm and tactile material; it鈥檚 right when it feels right.鈥
The 22-year-old Plymouth design graduate, who came to public attention in 2014 when one of his pieces was named best exhibit at the Young Furniture Makers Exhibition in London, has been fascinated by wood since the age of five. It鈥檚 a love he inherited from his grandfather, in whose company he spent many an hour as a boy, watching and learning as he crafted furniture in the family home in Penryn, Cornwall.
鈥淗e had no machines; everything was exactly the same as when he did his apprenticeship in the 1950s,鈥 Joe says. 鈥淚t was woodwork in its simplest form, and there is a great romance in that.鈥
That element of the traditional 鈥 both in terms of materials and craftsmanship 鈥 has permeated Joe鈥檚 art and work. And from his proud Cornish roots, so he鈥檚 begun to diversify through the range of influences he鈥檚 been exposed to.
鈥淚鈥檝e never lived more than three miles from Penryn, and much of my work expresses that I鈥檓 Cornish and I鈥檓 inspired by Cornwall,鈥 Joe says. 鈥淏ut it was great to spend time at Plymouth 鈥 I was a sponge, soaking up the specialities of my teachers like Polly (Macpherson) and Roy (Tam). I learned to work with new materials like metal and plastics 鈥 I鈥檇 always found metalwork to be cold, but I learned from listening to others and I learned from doing and making mistakes.鈥
