David Pye was a prominent furniture designer and educator who was Professor of Furniture Design at the Royal College of Art from 1964 until 1974. An accomplished woodworker and carver, he is perhaps most remembered for his fluted works made on his specially designed ‘fluting engine’ that assisted him to create works that are immediately recognisable for their smooth rhythmic pattern and elegant shaping of his materials.
Following initial training at the Architectural Association where he specialised in wooden buildings, Pye served in the Navy. After the war, Pye shifted his attention from buildings to furniture, explaining to the Crafts magazine in 1976,
'There wasn't going to be any wood for building for a long time, so I thought I'd stick to wood, and ditch buildings’.
His creative process placed focus on the diversity of the object through manipulating and abstracting the quality of the wood, and offering the eye something to focus on between the object's large form and the minute texture of the wood itself. Working across a plethora of different woods, Pye succeeded in creating diversity in aesthetics while maintaining a sense of cohesion across his work.
In addition to his woodwork and teaching commitments, Pye wrote two influential works: The Nature of Design in 1964, and The Nature and Art of Workmanship in 1968. These texts have achieved a cult following from craftspeople. In these texts, Pye introduced the concept of ‘the workmanship of risk’ – which he defines as ‘workmanship using any kind of technique or apparatus, in which the quality of the result is not predetermined, but depends on the judgment, dexterity and care which the maker exercises as he works’ (The Nature and Art of Workmanship, p. 4).
Pye’s work remains highly collectable and is held in collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the Craft Council.
