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M ichael Thomas Host and Tanja Hinder-the couple behind one-year-old MTH Woodworks -met in 2002 when Hinder, now 30, was visiting English Bay, on a break from her native Switzerland. Worlds (and mountain bikes) collided, and the pair pursued the summer romance long-distance for three years. Hinder finally moved to Vancouver to study interior design at BCIT; Host-who's now 34 and got his start working with wood at a shop in Brooklyn ("We'd take a rental van and head out at midnight into Manhattan, work a deal with the security guards to take some of the beams and posts out of those old buildings")-was already building custom cabinetry. A snug fit.
With the Bloom and BloomX lines, the pair pursue an ecological aesthetic; from their first table, cast in the Richmond garage of Host's logger father, they've stuck to the guiding principle of enclosing organic shapes in clean, geometric forms (a legacy of Hinder's Swiss roots). Judge Maddy Kelly celebrates this marriage for its innovation and technical excellence-"a great eco story." The sticking point for MTH was materials. For the tabletop, they tried everything, even marine-grade gels, but hit pay dirt with an organic resin made from soybeans and peanuts-nontoxic, low odour, sustainable. For the wood, they struck a deal with a fellow managing a forest near Maple Ridge. He leaves a little more on the stumps, and the couple swoop in to pluck pieces with good form from the burn pile.
That cedar and birch takes a long road before it hits Vancouver's Provide, the exclusive local retailer of the Bloom lines: drying, sandblasting, shaping, sealing, applying resin, and so on. Working 16-hour days (with time off for biking), the pair infuse their salvaged treasures with new life.
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Judges
Furniture
BRENT COMBER works with solid masses of (often reclaimed) wood to create furnishings that speak poetically of his Pacific Northwest home.
ROSS TAYLOR is the owner of Gabriel Ross, a Victoria furniture store that features such lines as Herman Miller, Knoll and Fritz Hansen.
MADDY KELLY is president of the luxury Calgary furniture store Domicile Interiors, which she opened in 1998.
ONE TO WATCH
Furniture
Robert Faulkner
Furniture designer Robert Faulkner says he doesn’t believe in trying to be different. We’d argue, though, that he’s separated himself from the pack whether he meant to or not. The Edmonton-based designer, a recent graduate of the University of Alberta’s industrial design program, exudes a purist philosophy that carries through his work, from the design itself (the elegant, arcing legs of a side table, say) to the materials he selects (like the solid Eastern Birch used in the pictured Flow chair). Judge Brent Comber notes that Faulkner’s work has an honesty that communicates "his love of process and building." Comber predicts: "We’ll no doubt see some great things from him in the months ahead."-Kristine Sostar
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