Me.

My name is Samadhi. I am the sole owner, maker, designer and distributer. I am lucky to have a couple of incredible people, in my girlfriend Alice and sister Kalyana, helping me run my social media accounts (anyone who knows me know I need all the help I can get).

Style. It is an interesting concept of which I would say I have little. However, the little I do have is unmistakably mine so for that I am thankful. My 'design’ style is constantly evolving and just saying I take inspiration from nature is so cliche it hurts to say as true as it may be. Instead, my passion for sustainable and eccentric materials shapes the style of what I make. If something has a knot, interesting grain, or cool bark inclusion I want it in full display. Being something of a pyromaniac, burning timber to expose the texture of the grain or highlight live edge pieces is a part of my arsenal.

Woodworking Story

I have no formal training as a woodworker but I have been lucky to have few mentors along the way. I’ve always had an interest in arts and crafts thanks to my mum and dad being alternative before it was cool, hence my name. My pop was also a hobbyist woodturner. I can remember visiting and annoying him constantly with questions about wood species, stories and different tools. I loved manual arts during school and my teacher Mr Hawk was a great influence as he never once looked at my half finished, overcomplicated projects and laughed he graded me on the time spent and the quality shown.

As I got older, school and sport became my priorities. Like most people who perform reasonably well at school, I saw university as my only real option. I had no real idea what I wanted to study, never mind do for a job. So, I experimented with a dual degree in Science and Journalism because, “Hey,” I thought, “I like writing, I like science.” After about a month I realised I didn’t like uni writing or science a whole heap, but I told myself I would persevere.

After telling myself for about two and a half years of persevering I decided that was enough and dropped out, unsure of what I wanted to do I tried my hand at a few odd jobs to keep the rent ticking over. All this time I had been watching woodworking youtube videos and which planted the seed.

In an example of fate, or god’s will if you believe in those kind of things, my Pop was moving house and wanted to offload a heap of timber and tools. I travelled to his place and helped he get ready to move, in the process inheriting a lathe, bandsaw and a heap of other useful woodworking tools. That was mid way through last year and until then I didn’t really believe I could make a living from woodworking.

More to come…

The Cat.

The cat’s name is Carlo. He is about 7 years old. He eats, he sleeps, he craps and occasionally if he is in a good mood, he lets us pat him. He’s a cat.

Nah kidding.

Although it’s not wrong there is a little bit more to him than that. He’s an interesting little fella. We got him from RSPCA when he was about 9 months old and haven’t really bothered to keep track of his birthday so far. Ever since, he has owned the house, and fortunately he still lets us exist in it (mainly because we are usually below his condescension).

Fun facts

• If you let him sleep on your bed overnight, you are liable to end up with a bloody face, hands and whatever other body parts are unprotected. He either enjoys inflicting pain on others or he has a weird notion that we are more likely to feed him if we are bleeding.

• He has used up at least two of his nine lives that I have seen. When we first got him he climbed up the top of the highest tree in the neighbourhood and came down the hard way. Then he got his back legs smashed up, we think by a car. After surgery he limps a bit but is otherwise fine. 7 to go. Make that 6, he ate some random gunk while I was writing this and had a vet visit after christening our hallway with vomit. Lovely.

• Three years ago, we got him a buddy, Kiwi. She has since taken the brunt of the battles for us like a loyal dog should. We have noticed a slight mellowing in Carlo’s behaviour as well although it is uncertain whether he is nicer or just old and gets tired from beating up the dog.