TheFurnitureProject
The Archive

The hand, the workshop, the patina.

Documentary photographs from the Basti workshop — Ramesh Kumar at the bench, the tools passed down, the joinery macros, the provincial references that shape the forms we build now.

The hand

Ramesh Kumar, master joiner. Thirty-four years at the bench. His tools. The cut.

Ramesh Kumar at a Basti workbench, shaping a chair apron with a spokeshave.
Ramesh  ·  spokeshave, 4pm
A calloused hand gripping a 40-year-old wooden-handled chisel.
Chisel  ·  the cut
Still life: spokeshave, wooden maul, gouge, rolled measuring tape, wood shavings.
The bench  ·  seven tools
Macro of a spokeshave blade pulling a pale shaving from honey-waxed mango.
Spokeshave  ·  the shaving

The edge a hand made

Joinery macros: the wax-filled end-grain split, the draw-bored tenon pegged in wood, the scalloped apron shaped one spokeshave facet at a time.

Macro of solid mango end-grain with a split filled with honey wax.
End-grain  ·  wax-filled split
Draw-bored mortise-and-tenon joint in honey-waxed mango.
Mortise & tenon  ·  pegged in wood
Close-up of a hand-shaped scalloped chair apron.
Scalloped apron  ·  spokeshave facets
Macro of a draw-bored peg flush with the surface in honey-waxed teak.
Pegged tenon  ·  wood into wood
Macro of a chisel gouge mark on a honey-waxed chair apron.
Chisel mark  ·  by hand

The workshop

Basti, Uttar Pradesh. A lane off Station Road. Eleven joiners, forty pieces a month, a door unpainted since 1997.

Wide documentary photograph of a Basti workshop courtyard at 4pm.
Basti workshop  ·  4pm, April
Weathered hand-painted workshop sign on a lime-washed wall.
The mark above the door
Stone workshop facade at mid-morning in Jodhpur.
Jodhpur  ·  the second bench
Basti workshop at dusk with a warm oil lamp and blue-grey window light.
The workshop at dusk

The form  ·  archival references

The provincial, refectory, and farmhouse forms we work from. Where possible we note the archival source on the ledger entry.

Archival sepia reference of an early 1900s French provincial console.
After  ·  French provincial console, c. 1920
The Provincial Console as made now — honey-waxed solid teak with turned legs.
Made now  ·  2026
Tarang scalloped-back chair in honey-waxed mango.
Tarang chair  ·  No. 01 archive
Refectory trestle bench in ebonised hardwood.
Trestle bench  ·  archive plate
Long console table in reclaimed haveli teak.
Console  ·  archive plate
Arc-leg side table in haveli teak with forged iron arc supports.
Arc-leg side table  ·  archive plate