Phillip Lloyd Powell

Phill Powell arrived in New Hope in 1947, with the dream of designing and handcrafting his own furniture and filled with the enthusiasm that still energizes his work and personality in the 50th year of his career.

Powell started his profession by opening his own store showroom in New Hope, PA. Specialized in creating commissioned works, he has exhibited at the Michener Museum in Doylestown and at the Civic Center Craft Invitationals in Philadelphia. At one time, he was represented by Environment Gallery in midtown New York.

Powell says he received widespread recognition after a prestigious 1961 exhibition at the New York America House, adjacent to the MOMA. The show established his status and attracted patrons.

We began our interview by talking about his most current work, a tea cart made of light ash, walnut, and dark ebony, inlaid with minor keys of red wenge and coca bola (see photo).

In front are real deer antlers. The handles and fenders suggest animal legs and hooves. These natural elements contrast with the mechanical bicycle wheels. At the same time, the wheels have black spokes and red-orange rims that compliment the colors of the wood. Silver will encircle the antlers of the finished cart.

Phill likes to oppose hard reflective metals with softer wood, sometimes with semi-precious stones or marble. His materials are meant to provoke sensation. He selects woods, colors, and accent elements for their expression.

Powell also considers malleability. He finds walnut, which is softer than maple or oak, fun to shape with his favorite tool, the spoke shave (a side-handled plane for curves) which requires a sculptor’s skill.

The furniture parts are fitted together by spline and rabbit joints, dovetails and butterfly inserts. The wood and colors of the pegs are important to the design. Finally, several coats of oil will bring up the rich grain and color of the wood.

With a piece like the teacart, Powell’s imagination has more leeway than with a table or cabinet, which need to be practical. It is the sculpting of forms that Phill loves most. The hand-worked set of handles is not supposed to match because, he explains, “the fact is, it doesn’t have to match, like people don’t match.”

Powell begins his work with sketches that he refines when developing the actual structure. (When making the teacart, he also looked at one, “to see what tea carts do.”) Then Powell draws on the wood and rough cuts. Designing and crafting are simultaneous. “I continue remodeling,” he says, “add or cut to create an entire finished whole piece. It’s a gradual process.”

Michael Demay influenced Powell’s method. Demay was a renowned clothing designer of the Art Deco thirties who worked like a craftsman, not just a sketch designer. Demay was also Phil’s uncle. “Like I work with wood,” Phill says, “he had ideas and then started with the model, draping fabric, and then made loose sketches.”

Before he was drafted by the military, Powell had attended engineering school. Later, when he was working as an engineer for a Philadelphia firm, he read an article about New Hope, with a photo of a man sitting on a chair by the canal with a cat in his lap. Behind the man was a cottage filled with books. The door was open, showing nothing but books. “That was exactly what I wanted,” says Powell.

In 1951, Powell built his home on Route 202 and opened the Phillip Lloyd Powell furniture showroom there. The structure now occupies the shops next to the Best Western Inn, which are slated to be torn down. He and designer Paul Evans also ran two shops in New Hope that sold custom-made furniture from their design line.

Powell closed the shops in 1976. “My imagination runs over itself,” he says. “It far exceeded what I could make. I do not want to be in the business of making furniture. When I had eight employees, I realized I was in the business. As a drop out I did not want to be just a designer.”

Powell is a designer, craftsman, and sculptor. He also creates and builds environments. His first house featured an indoor pond, surrounded by carved pillars with antique brackets brought from Sicily for candlelight reflections on the water. The pond was bordered by gardens of Bird of Paradise, hanging Bougainvillea, and two fifteen-foot-high avocado trees. It was shielded by a screen that could be lifted to allow in the rainfall, and it was channeled to an outdoor fountain. When sculptor Isimu Noguchi came for a visit he was highly impressed.

Powell’s present home features a raised platform bed that rests in a sky-blue dome with golden stars under a skylight in a tower copula.

Phill Powell believes the meaning of work is in making something that somebody wants, and finds sheer joy in creating something a person does not necessarily need. What is his favorite piece?—“The one I am going to make.”