Jim Parsons

Jim Parsons is a Suffolk woodworker who was born in Snape and has lived along the Suffolk coast all his life. He handcrafts beautiful furniture from locally sourced woods and can identify where each tree grew.

Working out of his workshop in Wissett, Jim is greatly influenced by the beauty of the surrounding countryside and the shapes and forms he finds in the churches and boatyards that populate his walks around the Suffolk Sandlings. With a background in cabinet making, Jim has been working with wood since the early 1990s.

Using a variety of traditional techniques, Jim carves, planes, steam bends and shaves wood to create timeless pieces for the home. He uses tools he has made himself or tools modified to suit a particular purpose, which gives his work its distinctive style. He incorporates paint and pattern to add texture and warmth.

The process of seeing the tree through to the completed piece of furniture is what Jim values, and we see this reflected in each piece he makes; a signature ‘bud’ on most of his chair-legs remembers the raw material and the legs themselves are often branch-like rather than perfectly straight. Each of Jim’s furniture is elegant, considered, constructed of local materials and made to last for generations.