Considering whether the bench with its dramatic flowing curves is a piece of art or a piece of furniture, Pedulla concludes it’s “a bit of both”.

“It’s usable and it’s a comfortable seat,” he says. “It follows all the rules of a good bench seat and you can sit on it. I really enjoy that. I think that’s where I want my work to go - I love art but I’m also a furniture maker.”

Growing up on the North Shore, Pedulla was busy designing and building from the earliest age.

“My family would save all their cardboard for me and I’d make things using cardboard boxes, scissors and masking tape.”

Then, when he was eight, his grandfather, a retired woodworker who continued his craft in his garage workshop, took him under his wing.

“I’d always stick my head in and see what he was doing,” says Pedulla. “Then he eventually realised I was interested and he pulled me into the workshop, put a jigsaw in my hand and started teaching me how to do woodworking.”

‘I get to teach people around the world what my grandfather taught me.’

Nick Pedulla

As well as the practical skills, which Pedulla went on to refine with an apprenticeship, his grandfather also passed on some of the philosophy that has sustained Pedulla in his own career.

“He never raised his voice. Everything was able to be spoken about calmly,” he says. “That’s the mentality of the woodworker. If you move too quickly bad things are going to happen because at the end of the day the wood is a living thing. If you don’t respect it, it will do what it wants to do.”

It’s age-old thinking that Pedulla is pleased to be able to pass on via modern technology.

“I get to teach people around the world what my grandfather taught me.”

The Art of Making, Australian Design Centre, 101-115 William Street, Darlinghurst, until May 4

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