David Haig

David Haig is an internationally renowned furniture maker, working from his home and studio near Nelson on the South Island of New Zealand. He has also taught extensively, both in New Zealand and Australia, as well as the USA.

He has been a furniture designer and maker for nearly 40 years, and his particular passion and interest has been around different explorations of seating using bold and graphic curvature in solid wood.

He first designed his world famous and multiple award winning Monogram rocking chair some 30 years ago and has been refining and perfecting it ever since. Likewise, a version of his Folium chair series won the first prize at a major Australasian Studio Furniture Awards exhibition in 2018, near Canberra.

The Orpheus Bench is a totally new exploration of a seating form, using a raft of connected steam bent tapering walnut staves linked to a single hand-shaped walnut back rest by reverse sweeping curves. It is a one-off piece of art furniture developed during two consecutive periods as invited Artist in Residence at the prestigious Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, near Rockport in Maine.

David said of it:  “I wanted to make a bench that felt like you were  sitting on a mighty washed up tree-trunk on a beach, with just the simplest back rest, so you could lean back and  contemplate whatever beauty lay  before you and that resonated within”.

David was very recently awarded a New Zealand medal of honour, becoming a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for his services to the woodworking  community .