Point of Origin
The ‘river table’ has become the biggest woodworking trend of our times. Many woodworkers regard it as such a ‘generic’ furniture form they don’t appreciate its origins stem from the designs of US maker Greg Klassen.
Seeing the flood of lookalikes that appeared after he first ‘went public’ with his design some ten years ago, Greg sought to protect his intellectual property by trademarking his ‘River Tables’. The backlash of criticism he subsequently received was unexpected, and raised larger questions about the rights of artists to claim acknowledgement for and ownership of their designs. I spoke to Greg about the river table phenomenon and asked him how the concept came about, and the impact it’s had on his life.
Who is Greg Klassen, and how did he become a furniture designer maker? Were you always going to be a woodworker?
I am a husband and father of three kids – my wife Barb and I have two daughters, 11 and 13, and a son, 8. We live in the Pacific Northwest of the USA, where we home school our children from our 108-year-old farmhouse on a small acreage. I opened my fine woodworking studio in 2008 after studying at the College of
