Meet the Maker: Mark Stewart

With the 2026 New Furniture Makers Exhibition only four weeks away, we sat down with one of this year’s exhibitors, Mark Stewart, a graduate of Williams & Cleal Furniture School, to find out more about what he’ll be exhibiting, his hopes for the exhibition and the future.

Please introduce yourself and tell us where you study, train or work.

I’m Mark Stewart, I’m just starting out as a furniture designer and maker. In my previous career, I worked in urban design for 13 years, with a focus on architecture, landscape and placemaking.

In 2026, I spent 6 months training full-time at Williams & Cleal Furniture School in Somerset. I learned fine woodworking skills and had the time to reflect on how furniture is designed and made.

I’m now building Atelier Gawa with my wife, Clémentine, a Bristol-based studio where we’re creating furniture that’s meaningful to us.

What first sparked your interest in furniture design and making?

I’ve always been interested in architecture, particularly modernist design and the idea that very little can be enough. I’m drawn to simple forms, clear structure and materials that are allowed to speak for themselves.

Furniture interests me because it brings those ideas very close to the body, in an intimate way. It is touched, used and lived with every day, hopefully for many years. I also value the mindfulness  of making. It gives you time to look again, to question a decision, and to gradually understand what the object is.

Can you tell us about the piece you will be exhibiting?

I’ll be exhibiting Scaffold Chair, which is made up of two contrasting elements designed to sit in tension with one another.

The first is a rectilinear frame made from pale maple. I wanted it to be stripped of ornament and feel almost utilitarian, a simple structure whose purpose is to support the seat. The rails beneath the seat are inset within the frame, helping the darker curved form appear to float above it.

Set within the frame is a more expressive seat made from twenty individually steam-bent black ash slats. The armrests are deliberately asymmetric, drawing the eye towards the curve of the seat.

The contrast between the pale, rational structure and the darker, more sculptural seat is central to the chair.

What inspired its design?

Furniture making has become a way for me to connect with my Filipino heritage, but I wanted to explore that in a way that wasn’t too literal. I’m interested in combining those cultural references with a modernist approach, where proportion, construction and material become part of the design.

For Scaffold Chair, I was inspired by Filipino architecture, particularly buildings raised on stilts in response to seasonal flooding. I was drawn to the way utilitarian frameworks support something personal and beautiful: people’s homes.

The original idea for the chair was quite simple, a beautiful object floating within a grid. The pale maple frame came from that interest in restraint and exposed construction, while the curved black seat introduces a softer organic form within it.

Is there a particular detail or feature that you are especially proud of?

I’m particularly proud of how the steam-bent seat came together. Steam bending isn’t an exact science, so there was a lot of testing involved, selecting suitable timber, allowing for spring-back in the moulds, getting the moisture content right and refining the steaming time and conditions.

This process had to be repeated across all twenty slats before they could finally be trimmed to their finished dimensions. I like that the end result looks simple, even though there was a great deal of experimentation behind it.

Beyond that, I like the rhythm created by the layered frame and repeated slats, and the way the chair seems to change as you move around it.

What are you hoping to gain from exhibiting at the New Furniture Makers Exhibition?

I’m looking forward to showing my chair to people and hearing how they respond to it.

I’m also genuinely excited to see what the other makers have been working on. I always find it inspiring to see how other people approach a problem, what influences them, and the different ideas and techniques they bring to their work.

What are your ambitions for the future?

I’m really looking forward to building Atelier Gawa with Clémentine, and developing a body of work that feels genuinely our own.

We want to create pieces that we find beautiful and meaningful, as a way of exploring and expressing our French, Filipino and English backgrounds. I’d love for the studio to grow into something with a clear identity, where the work feels personal, thoughtful and connected to our identity.

The New Furniture Makers Exhibition, sponsored by Staples & Co, takes place on Wednesday 4 November 2026 at Furniture Makers’ Hall and the Dutch Church in the City of London.