My name is Joe Dusel. My wife, Katsuyo, and I own Woodistry. We design and build furniture in Vista, California. Not only does our furniture look good, it's also environmentally friendly and made to last a lifetime! We don't used foil covered "engineered wood" (particleboard) or junk woods like the cheap Chinese made furniture. And we won't use toxic materials in our furniture either.
I've been designing and making furniture and cabinetry since about 1989. I was fortunate enough to have studied for almost 4 years under Ian Kirby at Palomar College in San Marcos, CA. where I currently teach a class on the eCabinet Systems cabinet design software. My influences have been primarily from the Arts and Crafts style, but my interpretations have varied far from those roots. I'd be delighted to build furniture or cabinetry for you!
One of our specialties is what we call a shoe bench. We started making these about 10 years ago because my wife wanted one by our front door. Now we use about 4 of them throughout our home - by the front door, the back door and the garage door. We produce small batches of our shoe bench designs (which keeps the cost down) and have a few new designs on the drawing board which we hope to be producing soon.
My family follows a "green" lifestyle. We have been vegetarian (I am vegan), eating organic produce, composting and using natural products for about 30 years. We also like to use environmentally friendly materials like bamboo and formaldehyde-free plywood in the things we make. Not only is it better for the environment, it's better for our health and yours to not use toxic materials such as formaldehyde. We also use water based finishes, so we are not spewing volatile organic compounds into the air we all breathe.
We have two wonderful daughters, one nice dog and get to create furniture and cabinetry in a studio with a view in Vista, California! All of the furniture is made proudly here in the U.S.A.!!! What more could one ask for? Oh, by the way be sure to check out our office.
Katsuyo and I have also setup a sister site Aikomei to sell Asian inspired furniture and accessories. Aikomei sells both our work and that of other artists.
If you have any questions about our work or our web site please Contact Us Here
I am teamed up with Joe Freenor and we have a blog site to talk about Cabinet & Furniture Trends & Information. We are both really excited about the site, so we hope you will check it out! www.cft411.com
Joe Dusel
November 2010
Hana with our viscous Rottweiler, Lidia