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In building her
furniture Hayley Davison utilizes the beautiful
woods of Hawaii such as koa and ohia, alone or in
combination with other fine hardwoods. Koa is
probably the best known and most sought-after
island wood used in furniture, and it comes in a
range of color from warm gold to reddish-brown,
with an equally varied range of grain patterns from
curly (shown above) to straighter-grained patterns
similar to mahogany. Hayley uses koa from the Big
Island and Kauai.
Hayley trained
at North Bennett Street School in Boston in
traditional 17th and 18th century woodworking
methods. She combines time-tested traditional
joinery such as hand-cut dovetails and mortise and
tenon with the natural beauty of island hardwoods
to create furniture that will last a lifetime and
longer. Her building techniques allow for the wood
movement and expansion and contraction that can
loosen or even pull apart poorly built joints over
time. This is especially important for pieces that
go to climates with more variation in temperature
and humidity than Hawaii.
To finish her
pieces Hayley uses a nontoxic and natural oil and
wax finish in several handrubbed coats that can
take up to two weeks to complete. While not as fast
and easy as a sprayed lacquer coat, this
traditional wood finish will become more beautiful
over time with the occasional application of a
little more oil and wax. An additional benefit to
this finish is that any future surface damage that
might occur is more readily repaired than with a
lacquer finish.
Since coming to
Kauai in 1995 Hayley has made hundreds of pieces of
furniture including tables, chairs, beds, dressers,
cabinets, chests, and Tansu cabinets, as well as
hand-bound books with wood covers and more.
Please contact
us with any questions or for more
information.
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