Design and Technology
SPIRIT OF CREATION
Founded by Mark Boddington, Silverlining has been a British front-runner in the art of furniture for more than 30 years
When we think of craftsmanship, we often associate it with the past: time-honoured traditions handed down through the generations, steadfastly rejecting modern technology.
Which is why Silverlining, the British museum-quality furniture company which creates bespoke pieces for superyachts, aircraft and private residences, is all the more extraordinary. Established in 1985 by Mark Boddington, Silverlining upholds and celebrates traditional skills and craftsmanship while enthusiastically greeting the future. “Traditionally, craftsmanship was seen as someone working away by hand,” says Mark. “However, technology is now driving new-age craftsmanship.”
Specialising in rare and exotic materials, Silverlining has completed over 80 projects on yachts, worked on private residential projects in 24 countries and won two Queen’s Awards for Enterprise.
Silverlining’s designers continually push the boundaries of possibility in bespoke craftsmanship and furniture design to create pieces of extraordinary skill and beauty. “A designer shows what is possible and the maker and engineer make it possible,” says Mark. As well as using specialist traditional skills, Silverlining’s designers use digitisation and algorithms to conjure up micro-level detail and random patterns from which software can instruct 3D printers, lasers and CNC machines to create pieces which need to be seen to be believed.
From the Art Nouveau carved English walnut and leather desk which took over 6,200 workshop hours to complete, to the Japanese-inspired ‘Kimono’ screen created for motor yacht Amaryllis which comprises almost 3,100 individual pieces of dyed sycamore veneer and splits at the touch of a button to reveal a 50-inch television, no request is too complex. As for the future, Silverlining is committed to creating a legacy of excellence, including collaborating with Bangor University’s Biocomposite’s Centre and investing in the next generation of designer craftspeople with a PhD level ‘skills academy’.
“It is important that designer and crafts person collaborate, using their minds and hands to pursue excellence,” says Mark “It is the desire to reach perfection that drives us – although perfection is infinite and therefore never achieved.”