Meet our team: Peter Jorgensen
As part of a new series, we’re talking to the Among The Trees staff about what they do and why they do it. We’ve learned over the years that working with reclaimed materials is a bit of an unusual calling, and attracts all sorts of interesting people.
This time we’re talking with Peter Jorgensen, our operations manager and guru of all things machining and glue ups. If you’ve visited us in store to talk about a benchtop or other bespoke project, you’ve probably had the pleasure of working with Peter!
Tell us a bit about what you do at Among The Trees?
I’m the operations manager: I oversee everything from timber sourcing from demolitions to the creation of personalised pieces like benchtops and shelving.
What do you love about your job / what gets you out of bed?
I like the surprise of discovering beautiful grain and colour underneath a weathered old piece of timber. I also like that it isn't uniform, meaning everything that we make is entirely unique and personalised based in what timbers are available at the time.
What’s your favourite thing about recycled and/or reclaimed timber?
Recycled timber is always throwing up new challenges, and I enjoy solving my way through these and showing that high quality craftsmanship is possible with uneven materials.
Among The Trees is built around sustainability, but what do you personally find valuable about a sustainable outlook?
I am interested in sustainability for a number of reasons, but for this job I see it from a design perspective. I am interested in the way sustainable principles lead to new ways of building and making. It could be viewed as posing limitations to the field, but I believe it's leading to better design and a more beautiful and interesting world to be a part of.
