Furniture makers and designers probably don’t think about glue as essential to design, but it is. Before when furniture makers used mostly animal-based glues, which were especially subject to failure resulting from heat and moisture, joint design was absolutely crucial. Our modern view of dovetail joints as a symbol of furniture quality actually stems from woodworkers trying to create joinery that could combat and withstand glue failure.
Modern adhesive options include formulas that will much more readily resist the ravages of temperature, time, and moisture. And sometimes complex interlocking joinery is abandoned almost entirely. Take the case of Wendell Castle’s groundbreaking furniture designs. He says his free-form designs began in the late 1950s and early 1960s with an article he read about how to make a duck decoy using stack laminations. When Castle expanded the idea to furniture, it gave birth to wildly sculptural designs unlike any we had seen before. Who would have thought such a simple idea as stacking wood and gluing it together, mostly without any joinery at all, would be a revolution in furniture design?
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Conn., just concluded a great exhibit of Castle’s early work. I had the opportunity be on hand when the show opened with a wonderful panel discussion featuring Castle himself. A spry 80 years old, Castle is just as wry and whimsical as his furniture. You can see some pieces from the show and read my article about it and the panel discussion at
http://www.cabinetmakerfdm.com/87584.html.