Matthias Plessnig

Matthias Plessnig is an award winning furniture designer who is featured in the Museum of Art and Design, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Plessnig is based in Philadelphia where he creates his furniture in his studio out of steam bent wood with his crew. Steam bending wood is the process of steaming wood to the point where the wood fibers are willing to slide past each other making the wood almost like a spaghetti noodle for a very short period of time. Plessnig started his design career as an industrial designer but soon switched to sculpture after only a few weeks of being in the industrial design program at the Art Institute. He graduated from the Rhode Island school of design and the University of Wisconsin where he began his career. Plessnigs furniture design process started after he created a boat using a steam bending process. Plessnig began experimenting in his graduate studio creating a small bench using steam building. He started his process of creation off by sketching different ideas down, then creating a 3D model that he could base his design off of. Plessnig would then start steam bending the wood into the 3D form he designed. He uses either glue or rivets to keep his steam bent wood attached to his frame and then sands the final piece after the final form is created.