Deniliquin’s Kate Small making a big impact in wood furniture design
Furniture-maker Kate Small from Deniliquin runs her business on simple, ethical lines, and the quality of her work shines through.
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WHEN Deniliquin’s Kate Small tells people she’s a furniture maker, inevitably she will get questions about her gender and age.
“Traditionally not many young women make furniture, especially large pieces like I do,” the 27-year-old says.
“When I explain my job, people give me a funny look and are intrigued.”
From her cavernous shed on the outskirts of Deniliquin, she runs Kate Small Design, using largely traditional methods to make television cabinets, dining tables, chairs, woven lightshades and chopping boards, in her style of simple lines and blonde timbers.
So does being a younger female in a traditionally male-dominated industry matter?
“The job is definitely physical and does have its challenges. To move timber I use trolleys or call on my partner (Jack) or Dad (Geoff),” she says.
“So when I made a big dining table they had to help me flip it over to sand it.
“I’m a bit stronger than most females because of my work and I do a lot of strength training to make sure I don’t get injured.
“But it’s not a disadvantage. I work around the challenges so they work for me.”
Kate grew up on a stock and grain property east of Deniliquin, where she still lives, hoping one day to move back to the property and make furniture from the farm shed.
She says it was in Years 7 and 8 at Deniliquin High School that she first studied woodwork, leaving school to study architecture in Melbourne, but moving to graphic design early on.
It was during an eight-week course in furniture making in 2015 that she found her love of timber, then she was accepted (one of only 12) into Australia’s most prestigious furniture making course, at the Sturt School for Wood in Mittagong.
“At the start I found the course physically challenging. When you look at a piece of furniture it’s hard to imagine making it and I’d question whether I could actually do it,” she says.
“But once I started creating and making a few pieces it was so rewarding.”
Kate’s gutsiness continued when she decided not to follow the usual path and work for a furniture designer in a major city. Instead she went solo, heading to Jack’s family’s cereal farm in the NSW Riverina town of Berrigan to start production.
“I love the country, but it was a difficult start. It was very remote and Berrigan has a population of about 900 and not much in town,” she says.
“So I’d have to drive 45 minutes into Yarrawonga Bunnings to get supplies.”
So when Jack’s family sold the farm, the couple made the decision to move into Deniliquin, with easy access to hardware supplies, moving into the shed in late 2018.
Running Kate Small Designs, she calls on the help of her older brother, who works in the building trade, to nut out any complex wood problems. Family and friends are her broader brains trust.
“I always ask their advice, if they could imagine the piece of furniture in their own home and how it would function. They may not understand the skill of woodworking, but they give me honest answers,” she says.
“In furniture design you have to think about every single aspect. Even the wrong thickness of a leg on a table can throw the whole piece out.
“Because I’m starting in the industry, I’m still defining my style, but I prefer simple, blonde timbers. I travelled to Denmark earlier this year and I love the simplicity and curves of their woodworkers from the 1940s era.”
Kate sells most of her items through markets in the Riverina, as well as word of mouth and social media, adding that given the long drought in the region “people now are not spending as much, which is totally understandable”.
“I’m from a farm and know the challenges of living through tough times in a drought.”
At markets she often encounters people who question why they would buy her items, compared with Ikea or cheaper imports.
“I try to educate people, explaining I use ethical, sustainable timber, or reclaimed and recycled, and advocate for quality over quantity,” she says.
“People can be harsh but I don’t take it personally. It’s just the throwaway society we live in at the moment.
“I tell them they can buy a cheaper item at a store and it may last three years and they’ll keep replacing it. Instead they could buy from me and it will last a lifetime. Something they can admire for years.”
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