This Broached Commissions collection recounts Jon Goulder’s family history of furniture-making.
This Broached Commissions collection of limited edition furniture by Jon Goulder recounts the story of furnituremaking through four generations of his family.
Looking back can often move you forward. That’s certainly the case for furniture designer and maker Jon Goulder, who has looked back to his family’s tradition of craft and defined a new direction for his work in doing so.
Broached Goulder is Jon’s memoir, told through furniture. He collaborated with Broached Commissions to create the limited-edition collection that tells a story of furniture-making that connects four generations of the Goulder family.
Jon’s great-grandfather established the workshop EW Goulder & Sons in the 1930s, supplying furniture to Sydney’s most fashionable department stores. Jon’s grandfather, father and uncle followed the family tradition, as did Jon, until he enrolled at Canberra School of Art at age twenty-six. Jon was interested in creativity, originality and exalting the crafted object. “Craft objects are part of a life of ritual and intergenerational knowledge exchange,” says Lou Weis, creative director of Broached Commissions. “In that sense, Goulder is the epitome of the craftsman.”
Broached Goulder tells a personal and family evolution of craft, and a broader history of Australian furniture-making. The pieces in the collection represent different eras – different Goulder generations – yet relate to each other through materials and form.
The chaise lounge is the beginning of Jon’s memoir and a sentimental piece in the collection. “The chaise was always one of the most respected pieces of furniture in our family because it was intricate to build, upholster and fix,” Jon says. His chaise is faithful to his childhood memories, while doing away with the rigid formality and decorative language of the traditional
“Broached Goulder tells a personal and family evolution of craft, and a broader history of Australian furniture-making.”
chaise. It has a sweeping backrest and organic lines that evoke Art Nouveau and Art Deco, while the colour of the upholstery – rolled strips of leather, woven together by textile artist Liz Williamson – is reminiscent of the Victorian era.
Liz also created the textile panels for the modernist credenza, and Jon’s time spent with Liz inspired details of the form. The tops of the four sliding panels, which nod to the four generations of Goulders, represent the integrated shuttle and breast beam of a loom.
The console may be the end of Goulder’s memoir to date, but it signifies the start of his next chapter. “The console represents my evolution as a craftsperson and my trajectory in craft skill,” Jon says. He developed the process and technology to create the structure of the console, in which the pre-water-formed and pressed leather base is exoskeletal.
Developing Broached Goulder has established a new trajectory for Jon, pushing his creativity even further and producing pieces with true originality and intrigue. As the William Morris quote embossed by John Warwicker on the back of Jon’s freestanding mirror warns, labour should not be absorbed by the creation of useless things. A
Broached Goulder was launched at the Kvadrat Maharam showroom in Sydney in October 2019. It is now showing at Jamfactory in Adelaide until 26 April 2020.