Industry and craft may be uncommon bedfellows, but for designer Ben Klebba, a second-generation woodworker who runs his four-person workshop, Phloem Studio, out of Portland, Oregon, the two aren’t mutually exclusive. To produce the Portland Chair for Thos. Moser last fall, Klebba bridged the gap with the Auburn, Maine–based company’s "mind-blowing" facilities. The handcrafted, Shaker-influenced design carries Klebba’s signature exposed joinery—as well as tapered elliptical legs, a subtle and tricky detail greatly facilitated by a five-axis CNC mill. "Craft is a verb, a way to realize," muses Adam Rogers, director of design and product development at Thos. Moser. "Technology just helps those ideas get better."
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Eight simple components assembled by traditional joinery make up the Portland chair, so-called for the city name shared by Oregon and Maine, where Phloem Studio and Thos. Moser’s headquarters are respectively based.
