Steven Banen

My life as a maker began at age 4½ when I became completely absorbed making a model airplane. To this day I can see my small hands separating the plastic components, holding tools, rationing glue and fitting the parts into a perfect form. The 50 year journey since then has taken me through periods of building model railroads, working on real airplanes, apprenticing as a goldsmith for a designer jeweler and working as a production manager at a cabinet manufacturing company. With each experience I added new materials and processes to my “BAG OF TRICKS”. Years spent as a photographer looking through the lens of a camera at an asymmetrical world has undoubtedly influenced my design sensibilities. All of these experiences both deliberate and incidental are at my disposal when starting a new project. A lifetime of moving, creating, observing and manipulating has influenced me to fabricate desks, tables, boats, beds, cabinets and whimsy. My work emphasizes the beauty of all materials; it stretches their applications and marries them in innovative ways. My most interesting projects have unexpected sensations, like the deceptive sense of weightlessness flowing out of a minimal -- yet substantial -- structure. In my designs I seek the “perfect balance” not only through the juxtaposition of different materials but also through the precise engineering and innovative methods of joining them together to create a new piece.