The Cusp – Graceful Furniture Designs

Close up of The Cusp's logo: a washer engraved with The Cusp.

Something delightful about all the people I get to interview for Time of my Life is the way their faces light up when speaking about their work. After all, we’re discussing their dream, and their passion shows. And no one communicates that delight more clearly than Kim Patterson and Stephen Counsell. It was a real pleasure to meet them at their little workshop and to learn more about their dream business, The Cusp.

Step Inside The Cusp

“Would you like to see the workshop?” asked Stephen. “I’d better warn you, it’s a little bit cold in there.”

What an understatement!

In fact, the little, one-car garage where Kim and Stephen work their Cusp magic was actually more like an icebox and I quickly understood the wisdom behind Kim’s winter work uniform of thick fleecy jacket and sturdy overalls.

But the temperature was soon forgotten, as they began to show me around their fascinating Aladdin’s cave of a workshop and to tell the story behind their business and their dream.

How It All Began

Kim and Stephen met in the busy Customs department of Queenstown’s International Airport. They started work about the same time and recognised in each other a kindred spirit. The two quickly became friends and supporters in what can — at times — be a crazily stressful job. Their personalities, complementary strengths and weakness, and most importantly their shared love of “tinkering in the workshop” made for a firm friendship.

In those days, of course, there was no talk of a business. But the idea was sparked in mid-air as Kim leafed through a magazine and a page caught her eye. It was only a small article about a woman who upcycled and restored furniture, but as she read, Kim’s imagination took flight. By the time the plane landed she was convinced they should give it a go.

And that’s exactly what she said to Stephen next time she saw him. “Read this,” waving the article under his nose. “We could do that!”

New Life To Old Furniture

Kim and Stephen began by rescuing, restoring and upcycling furniture. It was a hobby that gradually began to take on a life of its own. Their first piece was a chest of drawers rescued on its way to the dump. Battered, bruised and topped with an indelible ink stain, the poor thing was sorely in need of some TLC.

Stephen and Kim worked their magic and brought it back to life. The ink was never going to come out, so they painted a bright, simple geometric design over it and voila! Problem solved. They put the piece up for sale on Queenstown Trading and it sold within an hour. Exciting stuff — and even more so when the new owner came back and asked for more.

But when you’re restoring furniture, each unique piece presents its own set of problems to solve. It takes time and skill to think, design and source materials — not to mention the actual physical work of restoration. Then, once that project’s finished you move onto the next, which presents a completely different set of problems. Those hard-won solutions are often not transferable to the next piece of furniture. It seemed, that with just two people, furniture restoration wasn’t sustainable as a business.

From Restoration To Design

The Cusp Strata Coffee Table
Coffee table from The Cusp’s “Strata” range.

However when Kim and Stephen began designing their own furniture that issue was suddenly resolved, especially when Stephen learned how to use CAD — Computer-Aided Design — software.

Of course, it still takes hours and hours, with many problems to solve when designing the prototype of a new line. But once that’s done other, similar pieces, can be made in a fraction of the time.

An easily recognised example is the stylish Cusp coffee table. Like many of their reproducible pieces, the table is made out of plywood used in a rather special way.

A New Way To Use Plywood

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plywood

If you know as little about working with wood as I do, you’ve probably seen plywood, and even heard the term, without knowing much about it. Usually, you would see the large flat surface on walls and furniture. But The Cusp furniture uses plywood turned on its side so that you see the plies (layers) in all their work.

I found the method truly fascinating.

Once a piece is designed, the design is then broken down into shapes and those shapes are etched into sheets of plywood by Winton-based Nigel Molloy Joinery. They’re delivered looking rather like giant model aeroplane sets.  Stephen and Kim then finish cutting out the pieces and glue them together. The result is a distinctive piece of furniture. You’d recognise The Cusp style anywhere.

Cutting out the pieces is painstaking work. The leftover frames – neatly stacked in the workshop – immediately reminded me of model aeroplane cutouts.

Bespoke Furniture

The other side of The Cusp’s business comes from commissions for bespoke solutions to their customers’ problems.

Arguably their breakthrough commission came from the Remarkables Start Early Learning Centre when they commissioned a “seat with a wow factor” to grace the foyer of their (then) brand-new centre.

This was the seat that led Stephen to learn about CAD — a huge learning curve that required hundreds of hours hunched over his laptop; learning, searching for advice and practising until the designs in his head appeared on the screen as intended.

When they finally unveiled the seat plans to the clients there was a pause then both ladies breathed “Wow!”

Kim and Stephen decided they’d met the brief.

Kim Patterson and Stephen Counsell on the seat with the Remarkables Mountain Range in the background.
The remarkable seat that transformed The Cusp. Notice the outline of the Remarkables on the seat and in the real mountain range.

Problem Solving

Clients often come to The Cusp because they have a problem that off-the-shelf furniture won’t solve.

Stephen and Kim have designed sturdy furniture for Airbnb houses, solved a lighting dilemma for an electrician and filled many problem spaces with made-to-measure, elegant furniture.

The smallest commission to date was for a soil sieve but their largest — apart from the seat — is one currently in design.

The brief is definitely impressive: a desk, with filing-cabinet-drawers that pull out as steps which lead to a sleeping loft with tatami mats (Japanese sleeping mats). Oh, and can you make it feel like a treehouse?

The Cusp motto kicked into gear: “We can do that!”

Help and Encouragement

Kim and Stephen are highly appreciative of all the help they’ve had along their journey so far. Their respective partners — Gary and Lisa —  are right behind the venture.

What’s more, it is rare for a client to commission only one piece. Their happy customers keep coming back for more, which means The Cusp now has a waiting list.

Stephen can’t speak highly enough of Nigel Molloy Joinery for the help and encouragement they’ve given over the past year, especially with their generosity and aid while he was learning Computer Assisted Design.

Their “can do” attitude and “Give Great Service” values resonate with Kim and Stephen, who have a similar ethos at The Cusp.

What’s In A Name?

When I asked where the name came from they laughed because Kim’s original suggestion — Funky Fufu — now seems so impossible and absurd.

It was Gary Patterson who came up with the breakthrough name and the more you think about it, the better the name seems to fit this unique little business.

  • On the cusp of something great
  • Counsell US Patterson – an amalgamation of names
  • Cusp – in geometrical terms the “intersection of two graceful curves.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Connect With The Cusp

You’ll find many more photos and videos of The Cusp’s graceful and elegant furniture designs on their Facebook page

Email: create@thecusp.nz

My own little memento from The Cusp.

You’ll Find Other Creative People On TOML

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Queenstown Features On The Blog

From Manila to Garston – Connecting Kids

In Cathedrals and Connections I wrote:

Building connections between people young and old —  between countries, cultures and religions — is vital. It’s the way that we will move the people of our world towards peaceful acceptance of each other. It’s the way to build trust.

Today I have another story – this time about connecting children and cultures to share.

Overseas Travel: The New Norm

When I was young very few children travelled overseas. Certainly I didn’t know anyone who had even set foot on a plane, let alone travelled to another country.

How different it is today. Even from faraway New Zealand, families regularly head overseas for holidays and adventures. In tiny Garston School all of the staff and 65% of the students have travelled abroad — many more than once. Some have family in England and Australia and travel to connect with friends and relatives there, and to learn something of their history and culture. Others return with tales of theme parks, shops and sandy shores.

Destination Garston

Garston School features - classroom, sign and playground.
Garston School: A small rural school in the heart of Southern New Zealand.

But some lucky youngsters get to move out of their comfort zone and experience cultures that are very different from their own. And that was certainly the case for the group of Chinese-Filipino teenagers who visited Garston School recently. Their visit opened a gateway between the Philippines and New Zealand and created connections on a very personal level. It’s a visit that the students in my class will long remember.

The seven teenagers and their teacher were in NZ to learn about our culture, but also to learn about themselves.

One of the many reasons schools at all levels organise Education Outside the Classroom (EOTC) is to give their students the chance to be independent. From day outings to school camps; Duke of Edinburgh tramps to overseas sporting or cultural trips, a key purpose is always to foster growth and self reliance. This sort of trip gives youngsters a chance to gain skills and confidence in their own abilities, while still enjoying the support and safety that traveling with a group brings.   

Laugh, Learn, Love.

Montage of our young visitors from Manila.

So Joseph, Nicole, Christine, Joanna, Jim, Cheska and Haslie came to Garston School. (Their only visit to a NZ primary school, in fact.)

It was a chance to discover part of our culture and to share a little of theirs. The teens wanted to interact with children, and that’s exactly what happened when they joined a technology lesson about buildings with my 5 – 7 year olds.

My students loved the chance to work in a small group with their chosen teen. They talked about their own homes and found out about the houses of their new friends. What a contrast – from tiny Southland villages to Manila, one of the most densely populated cities on Earth.

Of course there was a practical task too, as they experimented with blocks to build towers which would stand up in an earthquake. The room was buzzing with conversation and the occasional groan as another tower bit the dust.

I’m Longing to Visit the Philippines Now

All too soon it was morning tea time, and our newfound friends disappeared to visit another class. But that afternoon they returned to give a presentation about the Philippines to the whole school.

El Nido Island, Philippines
El Nido, Philippines. Photo by Cris Tagupa on Unsplash

I was impressed by the care they’d taken to introduce their culture to younger students, connecting with meaningful images, songs and games. We loved the slideshow pictures of beautiful islands, and animals so different from those found here. Every pause for questions brought a host of hands waving in the air, as the children begged to know more.

When a Chevrotain — or mouse deer — appeared on screen, Alex’s hand shot up in the air. I knew immediately the delighted connection he had made because I’d made the same one: on separate trips, we had each been amazed to see the tiny mouse-deer in the Singapore Zoo.

All too soon the special day had finished. My children rushed to exchange goodbye hugs and selfies.

Our new friends were heading to Invercargill for the weekend and then to Blue Mountain College. We hope they had a lovely time there too.

21st Century Education: Connecting With Knowledge…

A vital facet of 21st-century education is learning to make connections. We teach this from the very earliest days in school.

We want our children to see the patterns… connect the dots… make links between what they know and whatever they’re learning about. Nowadays we don’t just teach facts. Instead our emphasis is on:

  • How to find out what you need to know … and
  • How to apply that knowledge to solve future problems.

These are essential skills needed to function in the modern world.

… and Communication.

But we also need to understand where other people are coming from. Why their ideas might be different and how differences can enhance rather than threaten.

We live in a global society where communication skills are rated as the top priority in many jobs. Therefore social and cultural connections are just as important as knowledge.

Student exchanges and visits like this are one way to foster understanding. My children have fond memories of this visit and the lovely people they met. I’m sure that Christina, Joseph, Jim, Haslie, Cheska, Joanna, Nicole and their teacher do too.

Who knows what may come of this brief connection?

Find Out More About Garston School Kids On TOML.

Dwane Herbert – A Spearfishing Legend

When Cobey Herbert arrived in my class as a skinny five-year-old, I sent home the usual note asking about food allergies etc. Back it came, duly filled in: Cobey can eat anything except paua.

“Paua?” I thought. “Who would give a little kid such an expensive shellfish? We won’t be cooking paua here, at the most inland school in New Zealand.” That was certainly way out of my comfort zone.

It wasn’t until Cobey’s dad arrived with undersea treasures to show the kids that I understood, because it turns out that Dwane Herbert, is a 7-times National Spearfishing Champion of NZ.

Dwane and a student inspect a kina.
Garston kids were fascinated with Dwane’s underwater treasures.

I had no idea what spearfishing was, so I went to visit Dwane, and his wife Annie, to find out.

Continue reading “Dwane Herbert – A Spearfishing Legend”

10 Tips For Success When Using Your Bread Maker

Bread maker machines are advertised as easy to use — and they are, once you get to know them. But your first results can be disappointingly deflating. Small, dense and under-cooked loaves are often a problem for new machine owners. You can, of course, go with a bread mix, which has all the ingredients in one bag. Just add yeast and water and you’re ready to go.

But if you’d rather start from scratch, here are ten tips to make sure your loaves are the best every single time.

Continue reading “10 Tips For Success When Using Your Bread Maker”