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Run your hand along the grain and you feel the grooves, deep and firm. You may think of weathered barn boards or cracked old leather. That sense of rustic serenity is mango wood expressing its central character. Yet despite its air of power, mango is graceful and precise. Stare at it long enough and you find symmetry, a sense of order and even dignity in the grain and the markings of distress. There's always beauty to be found in that toughness, too. Some highly figured pieces sport curvaceous loops and sweeping curlicues, especially around knots. In other pieces of mango,...

Somewhere in the forests of Northern Thailand, a branch is growing a little every day, stretching outward and upward with a strength that no one stops to appreciate. Today, the branch is not even considered as important as the insects that live in it. But one day this fast-growing piece of wood will be transformed into something of beauty, a valued part of the home for people living on the other side of the world. If you're a sucker for greatness from humble origins, consider the suar.  A rapid rise from the forest floor translates into a feeling of movement and...

Montreal is the only city I know with its own Moving Day. On July 1st, you’re either feverishly loading boxes into a truck or you’re watching the neighbours manoeuver giant washing machines and fridges down tiny exterior spiral staircases—a guilty spectator sport. At this time of year when so many Montrealers are simultaneously editing their lives, Artemano suggested I try paring back too. Their minimalist interiors are something that require a discipline but easily achieved and rewarding. For inspiration, I pick up a copy of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: the Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, by Marie...

Roots matter. Where things come from, where we come from. Our roots explain the unexplainable: why we crave tastes we didn’t grow up with, or why we love the sea as though we’re made of it even though we were born in the city. Our roots are the nurture to our nature – the background to who we are, whether we are conscious of it or not. All the pieces we at Artemano ship home from our explorations have deep roots, and sometimes they come with stories.  The trees from which the Siam tables grew under the sunlight and rain of...

A plank of Indian rosewood speaks of time suspended. The contrasting blond and chocolate and grey whorls of rosewood remind us of prehistoric, primal shapes — like the multicoloured rock strata of a dramatic canyon or the unimaginably colossal storms of Jupiter. The sinuous grain of the wood implies majestic motion, paused in permanent stillness between the straight lines of a piece of contemporary furniture. Every tree strives outward and upward as it grows, leaving the traces of its story behind in its rings. Yet few varieties of wood broadcast their biography with the same forceful clarity as Indian rosewood....