Woodcraft: An Interview with Unfiltered Magazine

Furniture maker Richard England has found inspiration in a whisky glass to create drinks cabinets to dream about, as Duncan Gorman found out.

Up until his mid-40s, Richard England had spent most of his life working in PR and marketing, and furniture making was just an enjoyable pastime. However, in 2019 Richard took the leap and started up his own business, Glencairn Furniture, transforming his passion into a profession.

Just like making furniture, whisky wasn’t always a focal point of Richard’s life either. It wasn’t until he and a friend one day decided they liked the idea of becoming whisky drinkers that they sat down and tasked themselves with pouring a few measures of Talisker.

“In my youth, a friend and I decided that we liked the idea of becoming whisky drinkers,” says Richard. “The only problem was that neither of us really liked the taste! So, one evening we committed to drinking a bottle of Talisker between us. I’ve been hooked on whisky ever since – but he’s never touched the stuff again!

“I’m largely a single malt drinker, enjoying a dram from most parts of Scotland – anything from Glenkinchie to Laphroaig, and perhaps with an 18-year-old Macallan in between.”

When it comes to his work, Richard is thorough and believes the most important part is done before picking up a tool. “Design. It all starts with good design. There’s little point in handcrafting something well if the original design is flawed or unsatisfactory. You will just end up with a well-made eyesore.”

He ensures that everything to feature in his work serves a purpose, while also making sure to calculate the most visually pleasing measurements. “I like to start by establishing the right proportions, usually based on whole numbers or ratios, and create the overall form from there,” he explains. “My interest lies more in form than materials. For example, interesting timber or grain can be nice but it should always serve rather than dictate the overall form.”

He is equally sure on what not to do during his process: “I’m not a fan of what I would call ‘conspicuous technique’. I don’t like furniture which is dominated by decorative joints and unnecessary embellishments. Again, the form should take precedence.”

Richard’s passion has now overlapped with the whisky world on a number of occasions, and he has created two bespoke Scotch Malt Whisky Society cabinets.

The first came while Richard was training and he opted to embark on a quite ambitious project to craft a cabinet in the shape of the well-recognised Glencairn whisky glass, as a nice tip of the hat to his new business name. However, despite finishing the classy case, it didn’t come without difficulty.

“Part of my course involved learning to work with veneer. And given my company name includes ‘Glencairn’ I decided it would be a neat idea to make a cabinet in the shape of the iconic Glencairn whisky glass.

“However, some furniture makers will tell you that it’s impossible to veneer on a compound curve, a surface which curves in two different directions. And although I found out it’s possible, it’s also very difficult and time consuming.”

Richard admits that the cabinet was quite literally a learning curve: “The Glencairn whisky cabinet took weeks and weeks to make and was quite exhausting. However, I learned a lot and was very pleased with the overall result.”

The second cabinet was crafted for a client, who Richard hints at having a rather large collection of Society bottlings.

“He wanted a cabinet to house most of his collection and in a style and finish to complement the room in which it was to go. The other furniture in the room was dark in colour and the space in front of it had little room due to a sofa.

“I designed the cabinet in beautiful walnut, with three sliding doors and resting on an ebonised ash base. I also included an SMWS bottle motif at each end – also in solid walnut.

“Altogether, the Galloway Whisky Cabinet can house around 72 bottles. Both I and the client were extremely happy with the finished piece.”

This article first appeared in Unfiltered, the Scotch Malt Whisky Society’s members magazine.