Samuel Moyer Furniture: 3D Dreaming
By Susan Piperato | Summer 2020 | Makers
Whatever he’s doing, Staatsburg furniture-maker Samuel Moyer is always dreaming of working. “Any person working in a discipline long enough begins to ideate regularly,” he says. “You see the world through a furniture lens. When your mind is slow, when you’re driving or dicing garlic, you might be wandering through a world of strange furniture designs. We daydream our work, if it’s interesting enough to us; we solve problems in our sleep. When we are passionate about the work, it bubbles up in us all the time.”
Moyer’s cabinets, tables, consoles, chairs, and beds integrate brass with unusual, often self-milled woods like locust or American black walnut, and usually contain unfinished sections. “I want to show process, to let the materials break down or betray their rough edges,” he says. “I love to let color come in and catch us off guard.”
Working “from the head and heart,” Moyer lets “the process dictates the product.” This method is “inherently inefficient,” he admits, “but allows for surprise, excitement, and optimal enjoyment of the process. On my best days, my work is something of a walking meditation that results in a 3D object that can be useful and beautiful.”
Recent clients include FAIR design agency in Manhattan, Brooklyn boutique Bird, and a Midcentury Modern house by Cliff May in Rustic Canyon, California. From his Salt Point studio, Moyer also makes furniture for celebrities but considers his annual auction donations to Planned Parenthood of the Hudson Valley equally important, along with his support “of folks who may not have the deepest pockets or the biggest budgets.”
Above all, Moyer intends his work to last. “It’s my fervent wish that my clients live with and use this furniture for a long time,” he says, “that this work gets handed down to kids and grandkids. I hope I’m encouraging a less consumerist outlook.”
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