Making things is a way of thinking, it can be a great way of finding the obvious and on occasion the less obvious.
My workshop is set up for making steam bent chairs and specifically to avoid making kitchens.
At the moment there are several mock-ups leading to a new home office chair on castors. The latest prototype is finished and ready for production. Much of what I do is make tooling and work out processes. So, amongst the most important bits of workshop kit is a metalwork lathe.
I like the way something is made to have an influence on how it looks.
There are various bits of building ready to go on site and a skeletal mould for a 16 foot open sailing boat which gets far too little attention.
The downside of workshop practice is too close a relationship to the norms of tradition. For woodworking inspiration, I look to other uses of the material such as boat building and wooden sports equipment.
There is a difference between designing on paper or screen and the practice of designing and making as a single act. It turns the process from a monologue into a dialogue which is much more interesting. The material knows how it would like to be; this is particularly true when working “green” wood.
Creativity is deceptive, I try to be more receptive, here being a maker is really helpful.