10 Questions With… Furniture Artist Caleb Ferris

ID: What type of pieces do you make?

CF: Sculptural furniture and objects that are inspired by the fantasy of everyday life.

ID: What inspires you about the fantasy of everyday life?

CF: I’m inspired by objects and motifs that exist in the background of our lives. I have a growing reference library of objects that I pull from. My collection ranges from things like fishing lures and pasta to cartoons and Sci-Fi movies. There are so many genres of collections to explore that we don’t often associate with the design world. My hope is to broaden the perspective of where we find beauty.

ID: Why pasta—what’s the appeal?

CF: The answer is twofold. I found that when you first share your design with someone, their immediate response is to associate that object with something that already exists. It can be one of the most humbling and annoying experiences (heaven forbid your work is compared to another designer’s). I want to control this narrative and beat my audience to the punchline by being conspicuous about my sources of inspiration.

The second half to my answer is that I went to the grocery store frequently during the pandemic. I’m not sure if it was the lack of travel or stimuli at that time, but I had an ‘aha moment’ in the pasta aisle one day. I stood there and started examining all of the varieties and noticed how each type of pasta was engineered to serve a purpose and how sculptural they are. The rest is history.

ID: How do you fabricate your pieces and what are some of your favored materials?

CF: The majority of my work is carved wood. I fabricate using a combination of hand and digital carving depending on the scale of the project. I really like the collaboration between man and machine in these processes. I think it’s a good reflection of the lives we live today. However, in an act of rebellion, I started incorporating imperfect hand-made elements into my work as a way to reclaim the humanity of making a physical object. I accomplish this through spontaneous finishing, which showcases the materials and processes as part of the final piece.

ID: What was your breakout design?

CF: The Noodle Throne, which I debuted this summer during NYCxDesign.

ID: Dream design project?

CF: Somebody please call me when we start furnishing our homes on Mars.

ID: What does a typical day look like for you in the studio?

CF: I spend probably 85% of my time doing some form of sanding. When I’m not sanding, I like to make sketch models by hot gluing random things together or tying them together with wire and string. This is my favorite part. Once I have a concept that I like I digitize it and refine until it resembles a piece of usable furniture. 

ID: What’s one thing you can’t live without?

CF: Quality snacks are essential to the creative process. The seriousness of the snack is directly related to the scope of the project.

ID: Who is another designer’s work you admire?

CF: I admire the work of the artists who were part of the Dada movement. I particularly like [Marcel] Duchamp’s ready-made works. I resonate with the idea that a simple object can be completely transformed via the artist’s definition and context with little alteration to the object itself.