It’s Gaelic for ‘struggle and overcome’ and that’s exactly what Kent Turner has done.

Kent, a US student from Washington State, has made two of the funkiest chairs that we’ve seen for a long time.

But not only are they decorative they’re also extremely practical.

They were designed around ease of disassembly, held together by Japanese joinery, dowels and wedges.

The feet of Kent’s chairs are made from yew, and the seats and backs from sycamore.

In an inspired design flourish, both chairs have walnut accents.

That’s particularly apparent in one of his chairs, where one side of the chair back appears to be splitting away.

It was a natural fault in the wood that Kent has exploited, using a series of walnut strips to ‘stitch’ the chair back together.

Cleverly, the walnut strips are differently placed on either side of the chair back, to echo a piece of crude sewing.

Stribh and ceannsaich?  Well, he wanted to incorporate a little bit of Scotland into his chairs.

But, more than anything, sanding the feet alone took six-and-a-half hours of hard toil.

But he persevered, struggled and eventually overcame.

Kent had been looking to make a career change into fine furniture design and making for several years, and we’re delighted that he took the plunge.

His design flair and craftsmanship are evident in his pieces, which are playful, imaginative and entirely functional.

Kent, a former builder who lives on Whidbey Island, north of Seattle.

He came came to us having had a decade in building timber-frame homes.

While that may have given him a feel for working with wood, he has also developed a high level of craftsmanship with which to pursue a new career in fine furniture design.

He plans to return to Whidbey and continue building houses.

At the same time, he intends to develop his own furniture business, starting with making Windsor chairs.