Meet Nick Pedulla from Pedulla Studio. Nick’s parents report that his creative streak was evident from a very young age. Working with wood is in his blood, with his grandfather also a furniture maker and Nick started working with him in his home workshop on the weekends from the age of 8 years.
He recalls his first woodworking project was a wooden clock, made with his grandfather, which sparked a love of the craft. He soon progressed to more complicated structures including putt putt golf courses and picture frames. But by far the most challenging piece Nick created was a roll top desk which was made at age 16 for his Industrial Technology HSC major work.
“Everyone told me it was too complicated – my teachers and even the guy we purchased the plans from,” he laughs. “But I made it anyway. And the HSC markers didn’t believe at first that it was all my own work but I was lucky my teachers had my back”.
Following his school years, Nick undertook an apprenticeship in Cabinet Making through Lidcombe TAFE and he feels lucky that his employer at the time was able to expose him to a wide variety of residential and commercial projects. “It was great to have so many different things going on,” he explains. “I showed lots of interest and asked lots of questions, so they started letting me get involved in more exciting things”.
After 10 years or so in the industry, Nick decided it was time to start his own business.
Pedulla Studios was established in 2016 in the same premises that it operates from today. Nick applied his years of experience working in a variety of factories to ensure this studio was set up in a way that’s perfect for his business. Today, Nick combines client work with filming for his YouTube channel which he uses to document his work and has been steadily climbing in popularity since it was launched.
In 2023, Nick entered a new project – the Vigne Bench – into the ACFA Industry Awards and was proud to win the “Best Free Standing Furniture” and “Design of the Year” categories.
The Vigne Bench is made from solid American ash, which was chosen for its flexibility and colour, and is so called because the structure of the curved elements reflects the way a vine grows around its trellis. The main seat structure uses a stacked lamination technique to build a solid foundation which is then carved into its final shape. Starting with the idea of the project first, Nick had an image of what he wanted to create but then had to work backwards to reverse engineer the design and manufacturing process.
“This was the first time I’d ever created something on this scale and it worked out better than I could have ever expected,” he says.
Incredibly, the most challenging aspect was not the curved elements themselves but how to join the curved elements to the bench. Nick found that trial-and-error was the only way to find the solution.
“I had to build up sections and then chip away at it until it was right. Which was frustrating as I prefer to calculate first and then cut, but it was too difficult with all the angles,” he adds.
Another part of the challenge is the piece’s application as a 3D structure – no one section looks the same as another.
Nick was also highly focussed on the practicality and usability of the piece so his main goal was to hide the functionality within the beauty. “I knew I wanted it to look good but it had to also be usable,” he laughs. “I was hoping the tension within the curvature would be enough to make it rigid and the two additional curves inside the curved leg act as a support structure as well as enhance the overall design”.
Nick is best known for his following on YouTube where he loads videos of him creating his amazing pieces. The channel was started organically, as a way of Nick documenting his work, but it quickly grew in popularity and has now amassed a substantial audience.
For more information visit pedullastudio.com.au/
