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The designs developed by Swallow’s Tail Furniture’s owners, Magdalena Hubka and Piotr Grzybowski, are based on the traditional values in design, including naturalness, authenticity and proximity. In addition, they seek to recreate the transitory art of workmanship, with a major focus on modern design and noble wooden materials. When working on the designs for their furniture, Swallow’s Tail often take inspiration from architecture or from the field of construction. It is crucial that the form should come from the design, and not the other way around, and to retain a functional, but pure entirety in the individual elements while maintaining a satisfactory aesthetic. While creating the TAOZ table the designers initially thought they would use the popular solid European oak. However, the table form, its design and elements led to the need of proposing new aesthetical solutions. Hence the idea to look for other materials, including those whose colour would vary from the somewhat prosaic light-yellow hue of oak. Following an in-depth search and having browsed multiple sources of inspiration the designers decided to use American hard maple. They started looking for suppliers and it turned out that the Polish distributors are usually stocked with the popular species. But finally they found a source – the maple was found at the Warsaw-based Szkarlat. Not only that, but they found it was extremely good value for such a high-quality timber.
“We were captivated by the light colour of the species – not yellow, not grey, but almost shining white of the timber – but also by the noble and decorative grain,” says Magda Hubka. “And because American maple is not the trendiest species in Poland, or even popular over the last year, we thought it was original enough to employ the timber for our design. We are never worried if our designs follow their own paths,” The designers quickly decided to put the less favoured species to a test. According to Piotr Grzybowski, the other half of the designer duo: “While working on the maple it turned out to be a high quality species, fine-grained, medium-hard, with a close texture. This has made any processing, cutting and tooling to yield excellent results, and ensured an extremely soft surface. The timber does not break at the edges, which is a popular problem with other species of hardwood; in addition, it glues wonderfully,”. The designers agree that when they first saw the finished maple products they imagined the sparkling pieces of furniture in an interior, contributing to a one of a kind atmosphere. “What matters to us is that the white colour is permanent, and any pieces made from the maple white reflect light in an incredible manner. Light timbers stand out in a room” both Magda and Piotr confirm. “You could say we have fallen for the white of the species and we wanted to share this, and show others what has been so fascinating to us. American maple has simply amazed us. We hope to see this species more often at industry fairs, in magazines and portals dedicated to interior and furniture design,”. The TAOZ collection tables designed by the owners of Swallow’s Tail Furniture are slender and delicate in form. Thanks to a universal silhouette they can be easily placed in any living or dining room – the TAOZ tables will work very well with both classical and modern interiors. This family of reliable home furniture, made from natural materials, is available in a variety of sizes. Additionally, the designers decided to use American maple to produce their PEGAZ chairs which had been inspired by folk pieces dating back to the turn of the 20th century in Poland. The minimalist and pure design matches the modern trends, and combines simplicity with high quality materials and finishing, as well as attention to detail. The TAOZ tables and PEGAZ chairs, including their American maple versions, were shown in Cologne during the imm 2020 fairs, and Swallow’s Tail Furniture’s booth enjoyed enormous popularity among customers, bloggers, interior decorators, students of art and woodworking schools.
