The Showman

Furniture maker Andrew Muggleton is at his best when he's in show mode

By Brian Caldwell / Courtesy of the WOODSHOP NEWS magazine August 2005

Andrew Muggleton is a natural showman. Whether he is on stage at the Philadelphia Furniture and Furnishings Show, the ACC Craft Show in Baltimore, CraftBoston or most recently at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York, the studio furniture maker uses his charm, sincerity and gift of gab to great success.
Muggleton's entire sales are generated from furniture and craft shows, and the nine galleries that exhibit his furniture nationally, including the prestigious Wexler Gallery in Philadelphia. His furniture designs are innovative but not complicated, and usually feature large curves and a mix of materials - solid wood, veneer, metal and glass.
"He represents a studio furniture maker that brings very much an international sense of design," said Andrew Glasgow, executive director of The Furniture Society. "By joining a mix of materials together and creating work that is very much in the idiom of traditional studio furniture, he ends up with a much more forward-thinking design."

International roots
Muggleton was born in Britain, lived in Hong Kong, moved to Germany and on to Holland. He attended college in England and studied manufacturing engineering, which led to his first job for the Ford Motor Co.
"I worked for them in Belgium doing cost reductions on their vehicles, bringing their price down," he said. "They promoted me and I went to China, where I helped set up a factory. After that I wanted to get in the consulting end of it and went to work for a company called Andersen Consulting, which is now Accenture.
"I ended up working on the Stock Exchange, doing their information technology and being a management consultant for them in 2000. But I really didn't want to do that, so I got my pennies all saved up. I had always wanted to do woodworking and figured I'd do it when I retired. That's when I thought maybe I should try it now, and if it fails, at least I've done it."
So Muggleton moved to Colorado, set up shop and supplemented the woodworking he had learned as a teenager by reading books, magazines and the Internet.
"I thought about applying to RISD [Rhode Island School of Design] to try and get some skills but they needed a portfolio and I didn't have one, so I couldn't do that. They had a summer course and I found out that for the price of the summer course I could actually buy a workshop. So I said let's get a workshop going, buy some wood and start learning by mistake."
Muggleton's trial-and-error approach led to some interesting experiences, particularly when it came to veneering.
"My first piece was a chaise in a big S-shape," he recalled. "I put some veneer over lots of layers of pine in a vacuum bag, and the whole thing just exploded. Then I found out there are things called molds and forms you're supposed to make."

Quick learner
During his first two years in Colorado, Muggleton admits to catching a few lucky breaks with some galleries and acceptance at shows where he received a lot of encouragement. His designs matured and he added several materials to his repertoire. Being a smart and ambitious fellow - and one who had no fear of making a mistake or two - it didn't take long for Muggleton to develop a line of mixed-media studio furniture. His Balustrade chaise lounge quickly became his best-known piece.
The chaise has a curved makore base with walnut supports secured to brushed aluminum curved rails. The headrest is upholstered in ultra-suede. The wood species can be changed to accommodate a client's taste.
"In the case of that wonderful chaise lounge, I think that is so cool," Glasgow said. "I think that you look at that and you see this design and you think form over function, form over function, and it really isn't. It's form and function that is perfect in harmony."
"I was sketching on paper and I drew a question mark and that ended up being what I did for the base," said Muggleton. "It's not my top seller but it gets the most attention, and I've probably sold 11 of them over the last few years. That's kind of my signature piece together with the console table."
Muggleton's engineering background acts as a double-edged sword when it comes to furniture design. On one hand, he feels stifled because his rigid engineering background hinders creativity. Yet his bridge designs have inspired the liberal use of curves.
"It seems like you can pretty much do most things; you just need to spend some time working it out," he said.
It hasn't helped Muggleton that he has had shops in three states during the past five years.
"My business plan - to start with - was that the best place for living was somewhere in the middle of Pennsylvania and then you could go to all the big shows in Chicago and all up the East Coast."
Then Muggleton's wife, Laura, accepted a job in Rhode Island and Andrew was off to New England. Yet another learning experience.
"I realized that this is where all the furniture is happening and this is where all the wealth in the country is," he said. "In Colorado, the economy peaks and slumps very dramatically, whereas here it is more of a gradual up and down.
"So I moved to Rhode Island and I've been in four different shops in four years. It does get crazy but I'm pretty good at moving. It takes a lot of stress. You always think that it takes a week or two to move a shop but it takes about six weeks to get it set up. It's a lot of back-breaking work that's a bit demoralizing, but it's also exciting to see where you are going to put things. I'm pretty good at where my machines should go now."

Show biz
The vast majority of exhibitors at furniture shows or craft shows dislike the experience. First there is the cost factor, which includes time away from the shop, travel and hotel expenses, booth fees and the absolutely draining experience of being on your feet and at the top of your game for three or four days. And when the show is over, not only do exhibitors have to break down their booth and drive back home, they'll have to pursue leads that may or may not amount to sales.
For Muggleton, the experience is just the opposite. He loves the show scene.
"The best times of the year for me are when I'm gearing up for a show. It's time to perform. It's your time to be a peacock, in a sense," he said. "I spend time trying to work out the best way the booth should look. That's the way you have to show people who you are. I think the most fun I have is when I'm talking to people about my work. It's funny because I talk about my work like somebody else made it.
"I'm not sure why other people are different; if it is shyness or it's an attitude or it's just where they are. You see designers and a lot of them scare me off. They have an attitude about woodworkers and they like to hoard ideas. Unfortunately, I'm a blabbermouth. I can't help it."

Shop life
Muggleton commutes to work everyday by going down a flight of stairs to the cellar in his home. There, his machines are placed along the perimeter of the basement, which is actually above ground and benefits from natural light. A unique feature to the shop is the soundproofing on the ceiling. Muggleton installed it in an in effort to keep the noise to a minimum for his young son, Max.
"I've been in a two-car garage, a one-car garage, a 2,000-sq.-ft. space in a mill in Providence, and now this one here in Mystic, [Conn.], which is about 1,000 sq. ft. My thought was always, why waste your money on large space, a heater, lights, the rent and everything else when you could use that money for more effective marketing? That's why I always try to keep it as small as I can, but so it works."
His shop tools and machinery are adequate for his work but not extraordinary. Muggleton doesn't believe in surrounding himself with the latest technology, if he isn't going to use it. His shop mainstays include a Shop Fox 8" jointer, Jet drill press, Sand Pro downdraft sanding station, Grizzly 24" drum sander, Laguna LT18 18" band saw, Shop Fox mortiser, DeWalt radial arm saw, Jet 10" table saw, Grizzly metal-cutting band saw, Jet 15" planer, and an Oneida dust collection system. Due to the small size of his shop, everything is mobile. Plus, who knows when he is going to move again.

Keep it simple
Simplicity also rules Muggleton's designs.
"With my furniture, it's so easy to have a design and then want to add to it, put something else on it, make it funky, make it more bizarre or something. I realize that sometimes the actual beauty is from the wood itself and just a simple shape shows it off the best way. It's hard not to keep putting things in areas where you think something should go just because it's like a big spacious gap. I like the idea of free-flowing with not much space around it; that's why I try to keep it that way and the clients I work with, that's what they're looking for as well."
His design ideas come from a very unlikely place.
"The shower," Muggleton said. "My water bill is ferocious. I have 20- to 30-minute showers and any problems get solved in there. I'll go and do a sketch in my book or a napkin, and other times I'll be in a city - just walking down the street - and I'll see something that will create something else. I've run into a bank and written stuff on a deposit slip."

Staying on track
For someone who has had success his entire life, one can't help but think Muggleton will become a larger player in the studio furniture world. He is a person who thrives on being challenged and that may be his biggest obstacle down the road. He readily admits that he can become easily bored.
"For me it's all about the puzzle. Just to keep making the same piece every day, I'd go mad. If someone were to say I could make a million dollars a year making kitchen cabinets, I'd say, 'No thanks. I'll keep struggling the way I'm doing it because there are too many jobs I can do.' I can sit at a desk and make that much money and I gave up that job when I came to do this.
"I'm coming to a crossroads quite quickly. I'm getting kind of maxed-out in my capacity. I don't think I want to just go to the next level and get one or two people. I'd rather get 10 employees. But I'm too fearful of doing it because I hear all these stories from people who wish they stayed as a one-man shop. I'm probably still good for another year and a half, but then I won't be able to keep up."

Contact: Andrew Muggleton Furniture Design. Tel: 888-886-1805. www.andrewmuggleton.com