SLEEPING BEAR TWIG FURNITURE / About Bill Perkins

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Welcome to Sleeping Bear Twig Furniture. My name is Bill Perkins.

I was first introduced as a child to the idea of making furniture from branches, twigs and bark in their natural state. This happened when some neighbors took me along on one of their visits to a grandmother's "up-north" cottage, which was furnished in the rustic style. I was really impressed by these twisting and gnarly chairs and tables since by only previous experience with this type of thing had been the building of tree forts and hideouts.

Years later, when I moved up north (in Michigan) myself, I remembered my friend's grandmother's willow pieces and began to make some myself. I liked the idea of bringing the trees and bushes inside the house, and shaping them into beautiful and functional objects without losing the character and identity of the materials.

Bill Perkins

From my first rickety plant stands to the pieces I make now, each piece of willow I trim and bend, each piece of maple or bark has taught me something new. I have looked often and carefully at the great rustic pieces found in the Adirondack camps and in northern Michigan. A visit to Germany and Austria introduced me to some of the ideas and the flowing lines of Art Nouveau and the Wiener Werkstatte. A session or two with Clifton Monteith introduced me to his unique take on the the relationship of rusticity and modernism. The Arts and Crafts movement has also been and influence.

Bill 1971

I like to use unprocessed materials in my work. I like the immediacy of a shoot of willow. But, though I love and respect the history and tradition of rustic furniture, I don't feel constrained to only reproduce Adirondack period pieces. I like letting all these influences, and many others I happen across, have their say.

Environmentally, my work is about as low-impact as furniture gets. Willow is an extremely renewable resource, and thrives with harvesting. I take birch and cedar bark only from dead trees. New for me is the use of the hugely over planted Douglas fir Christmas tree.

I make each piece of work myself as I have for the last twentyfive years.