July, 2021 -Leslie Webb is a longtime furniture maker in Georgetown, TX, who recently expanded into retail sales of high-end woodworking tools. When she enrolled in our Nine-month Comprehensive back in 2004, as Leslie recalls, she didn’t have concrete goals, “I just knew with certainty that furniture making was my path in life. I simply wanted to learn as much as possible about designing and building furniture at the highest level possible.”
After a period of additional study and apprenticeship, Leslie started Leslie Webb Design in 2007 to build and market her own furniture. As the business has matured, small batch production has grown to account for two-thirds of present-day sales, with the remainder being one-off commissions and speculative pieces. In addition to selling furniture online and through retail stores, Leslie has also been juried into distinguished shows such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, ICFF, and the Architectural Digest Home Design Show.
In 2019, Leslie founded Heartwood Tools when she realized that no one in the U.S.A. was carrying her favorite hand tools. She wanted to make the Australian-produced HNT Gordon products more locally available. Both of her businesses are now thriving.
Speaking about furniture making today, Leslie says, “I am still completely hooked on the entire process of bringing an idea to life. Starting with a hazy thought, refining it and deciding on details, figuring out joinery and how the piece is actually going to come together to hunting for the right boards & materials, breaking them down and finally bringing everything back together until I start to see the idea appear before my eyes. It is an intoxicating undertaking to me.”
