Sideboard wins Fresh Wood’s Best of Show

Jinsoo Kim of Cresskill, N.J., a student at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine, won the Best of Show award at the 2021 AWFS Fresh Wood Competition. His piece was selected from 24 finalists and a total of 102 entries.

Kim won for “Sideboard with a Void”, a modern take on a traditional Korean sideboard.

“I tried to express Korean oriental beauty and manufactured it by using all machinery tools and western woodworking skills learned at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship,” Kim said in an interview with Woodshop News. “This award means that this sideboard is recognized in terms of not only its beauty, but its usefulness.”

Kim also won first place in the Post-Secondary Tables category for a second entry, an aerodynamic-looking piece called the “Flying Table”. Kim is pursuing a career in furniture making.

“I would like to introduce modernized furniture coming from Korean traditional furniture to the U.S., so I would like to develop more furniture having Korean beauty and western practicality,” he says.

Kim was awarded a sculpture made by woodworking artist Scott Grove, $3,000 in total prize money, and a KCD Software package.

Mohammed Al-Yasseen, a student at Lincoln East High School in Lincoln, Neb., won the People’s Choice award for “The Nest”, a chair built with hinges that folds completely flat.

Additional prizes were awarded to students for first and second place, and honorable mention categories for high school and post-secondary students. 

This article was originally published in the September 2021 issue.