Fourth-generation Australian woodworker Jon Goulder is a rarity.

Both designing and hand-crafting natural materials – mainly wood and leather – Jon is one of the few artisans overseeing and realising every element of his work. From the sourcing of the finest Australian timber, to collaborating with other craftspeople who hold unparalleled expertise and knowledge in their field. As a designer-maker, he is exactly that; he both designs and creates each piece himself by hand. Laborious, technical and original, creating something to be cherished for years to come.

Through his designs, Jon presents the evolution of this craft and Australia’s furniture manufacturing industry in the 20th to the 21st century. Working on custom projects for leading Australian restaurants, architecture firms and private clients, Jon’s personal and professional relationship to it presents a decisive road map as the designer-maker has, through his own initiative and instincts, navigated the ever-changing landscape.

Jon’s expertise cannot be compared, with almost every state museum acquiring his designs for their permanent collection, highlighting the fact that his name and work is a valuable piece of Australian history.

Joining his family’s workshop as a teenager, Jon sought to find an intellectual purpose for his practise and with his mother’s guidance, went on to study at the Canberra School of Art. Training under the late George Ingham, he was taught new techniques which would remain with him until this day. From upholstering using coconut fibre and hessian, a centuries-old tradition he learnt in the Goulder workshop, to technical innovations acquired in his later life, Jon’s toolkit of expertise was what would ensure he always remained original and modern.

Since 2018 and alongside his practise, Jon has also held the position of Senior Designer with Snøhetta Australasia. He’s well aware of the “dilemma of accessible craftsmanship”, and breaks this barrier with his own collection of hand-built bowls and trays with water-formed leather, a technique he developed proprietary to his practise.

Champ Editorial Director Monique Kawecki speaks to Jon about his knowledge and unique skillset, how craft could be better valued, and his upcoming project on custom seating and interiors for Yiaga restaurant by chef Hugh Allen and John Wardle of Wardle Studio and Architecture. The respect for generational craftsmanship in Australia is having a revival, and Jon Goulder is at the forefront.

CHAMP: As a designer-maker, can you tell us in your own words what this very niche skill-set entails? 

JON GOULDER: The designer represents an in depth understanding of industrial design processes, materials and manufacturing. Also, an appreciation of design history and how the use of materials has advanced our industries. The maker represents an in depth and applied approach to craft practice, the exploration of materials and the development of technologies and processes to manipulate materials.  A true maker dedicates their life to processes and practice, often developing technologies to enable the manufacture of an object.  

A design maker entails the combination of these two practices, the output should represent an intelligence relevant to today’s technologies. 

Born and raised in Australia, how has your environment influenced you?

I think it’s interesting to position my environment from a generational perspective. I am from a generation that grew up free from digital or social media influence.  I have had an overwhelmingly free life; Australians are among the luckiest people in the world. 

I am naturally inquisitive and being a fourth-generation craftsperson I have an intrinsic fascination with the physical world. My environment has been conditioned by an overwhelming sense of freedom whilst picking and choosing aspects from both American and European cultures that constantly infiltrated our daily lives. Australians seemed to pick and choose from international influence relevant to them. 

As a fourth-generation furniture maker, can you tell us about the knowledge and skill that was passed down to you? How priceless has this been to your profession and growth?

The knowledge and skills that were passed down to me are probably more aligned with knowing how to work – what is expected – work ethic. I have gained a sense of pride in my work and to value the process. The work my family produced was mostly Victorian style furniture, I have an natural allergic reaction toward this and this has helped shape my love of clean lines and contrast between straight and curved lines. I think it helped to train my eye. 

The amount of knowledge in your field is very rare, how does it differentiate your work from other designers and designer-makers?

I think as designers and makers we have a responsibility to create something new, something original. I try to design work that has a degree of originality, some innovation either via its form or via its use of materials or both. As a fine woodworker I used to have a niche as a designer because I could produce complex wooden objects – things my peers could not. When 5 Axis CNC wood machining became readily available to industrial designers my whole world was under threat because all of a sudden anyone could do what I do. I differentiate myself by developing new craft practices and new technologies to produce my objects, this way I own the process, this takes decades of dedication.

This is the way of the maker, a potter will spend a lifetime obsessing over glaze, a glass blower will try to corner a process that becomes their signature style, a silversmith will make tools to form their vessels and I will combine my design with making. The thing that differentiates in the end is how long you are willing to dedicate to the progression of a practice, I am a lifer, my portfolio will represent a life times work. I am incredibly fortunate to be driven by a natural passion for the object I create.  

Would you describe your work as craft or contemporary design?

Design is the way I think, and craft is my vehicle for the expression of those ideas. I hope my work is considered contemporary. 

How can craft translate to the design industry here for sustained operations?

As we see the rise of AI and the translation of this throughout industrial production design and production will become more integrated and more accessible. Craft will translate original thinking through the physical manipulation and investigation of materials, craft and material-based understanding will help develop innovation.  

Can you tell us about your water-formed leather designs and how you created this technique unique to you?

As above – I was looking for a new way to develop my practice because my industrial design peers were suddenly making beautiful wooden objects and selling them at incredibly competitive prices. I needed a new material and a way of reinterpreting how this material was used.

I started water forming leather (an ancient way of making body armour and often seen in shoe making) as a way of realising furniture scale objects. This led me to explore the development of compound curves as a way of holding structure. I realised I could build in or water form around internal components and then I started to use wood working processes such as vacuum forming to laminate surfaces together. The Settlers Chair (collected by the NGV in Melbourne) is my first large scale foray into these processes and is the best example of these technologies as a composition.

You have collaborated with Australian icons of the industry such as Maggie Beer on a custom leather-formed basket, how do you approach commissions?

This was by invitation and was facilitated by the Jam Factory in Adelaide so right time in right place. I approached this opportunity by listening and spending time. Maggie Beer needed a foraging basket and what a beautiful typology, I love that these opportunities force you to explore objects you would never typically explore .  

You have a very special commission coming from one of Australia’s best architects and also one of Australia’s best chefs, can you tell us more about this yet?

I have been developing a dinning chair for chef Hugh Allen in Fitzroy Gardens, this is for a John Wardle Architects project. Opening in August – more to come!

Jon Goulder Studio 

Photography: Jonathan van der Knaap© 
Interview and text: Editorial Director Monique Kawecki