Bespoke in Tennessee
Back in November, Cypress Magazine featured a potter by the name of Wes Evans. Mr. Wes was wonderful to interview and very insightful when it came to his community. After we concluded Mr. Wes’ interview, he led us a mile down the road to one of his colleague’s workshops. Mark Gunther, an English woodworker, a good friend of Mr. Wes, is the proud owner of Gunther Bespoke Furniture.
Bespoke is a word not commonly heard in the United States. The word’s etymology hails from England, where its definition is ‘custom’. It is commonly used in regards to suits but is also applicable to furniture. Mark told us, “When I was in England, in high school, my woodshop teacher would always encourage me to use, encourage everyone to use the word bespoke because it was a fancy word and it sounds good. When I started doing this, I went to reach out to him because he was a big inspiration to me and I knew he’d be proud. Sadly, I found out that he had died not long after I left school, so I decided to use ‘Bespoke’ in my company name as a little private respect to him.”
Tables, cabinets, cutting boards, and doors are just a few of the items to come out of Mark Gunther’s workshop--well that and piles and piles of sawdust, but that’s just a part of the process. Mark has a lot of wood coming in and out of his shop; wood coming in as chunks of raw potential and leaving as masterpieces.
When asked if he’s the only one to work in his shop, Mark told us, “I have help when I need it from time to time. There’s a high school student who makes pens and he actually lives on this road. I have him come in and help me every now and then because sometimes I’m just working with lumber that I can’t move on my own.” For instance, just before Christmas Mark delivered a commissioned conference table, fourteen feet by five to Nashville, TN. The table is solid oak, “It needed a crane to get it through the window when we got there.” Before being commissioned for the Oak table, Mark made four twelve foot long Poplar tables. “So yeah, every now and then I do need people to come in and help.”
Mark began woodworking full time in 2017. He relocated from England to the United States prior to his marriage, “It was a bit of a process to get a work permit, so I started building things for the house we just bought. It needed a lot of work so I was building bits of furniture just to pass the time and the only tools I had were a hand saw and a miter box.
Mark sources the wood for his projects from multiple people. “The Oak,” from the Nashville conference table, “was a really unique case. The company I built it for is a real estate developer, so they cleared some land for a subdivision. They saved some logs and had them sawn and I collected those logs from Middle Tennesee. I had to dry them, prep them and everything. I try to get what I can locally.” Another man who supplies his wood, “is a local guy who saws a lot of trees that are taken down from yards, so a lot of the Walnut and Oak I get is from him. There are also a few local guys who used to do a lot of woodworking but now they’ve stopped doing it as much, so I buy some wood from them. The only real supplier that’s local is in Dixon County and some of my exotic species I have to buy through them. They can really get anything you need so I get my hardwoods through them.”
When asked, Mark will tell you, “Tables are what I like to do. Really, I love making tables. If I could pick one thing to do, that would be it.” Mark’s passion shines through the quality of his work. He wants to do things right and ensure the longevity of his pieces. His rule of thumb when buying handmade furniture? “Try to do a little research on what you’re trying to buy and then ask the furniture maker how they do it. Don’t be scared to challenge them a little bit.” He went on to explain that, “In the past five to ten years, five years specifically, Do It Yourself (DIY) furniture making has become so huge that people are just making things the wrong way and they’re making things in such a way that they will break. If you make something that doesn’t allow for seasonal expansion and contraction in wood then you only need to go one season and it’ll show.” Makers who don’t take things like humidity in the summer and the dryness of winter into consideration their product “will tear itself apart. So I would just do a little bit of research on how things should be made.”
Mark’s Facebook page is Gunther Bespoke Furniture. He also has an Instagram @guntherbespoke and Etsy page GuntherBespoke. He can be reached at 731-443-9619. Head his way if you’re looking for high quality, handcrafted furniture!
