Today we’d like to introduce you to James Mitchell
Hi James, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I design and build furniture, and I also fabricate custom objects for other designers like props and retail displays. I’ve always worked in some creative capacity before this. Before I picked up woodworking I was a musician, illustrator, and graphic designer. In 2016 I was hospitalized for about a month with tuberculosis and after doing some serious re-prioritizing in my life I decided to transition to designing and building objects full time. I’ve lived in a handful of cities prior to this, like Salt Lake, San Diego, Portland, and New York. I moved to Los Angeles a few years back, which feels the most like home to me, and its a great place to do what I do.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has not been a smooth road whatsoever. Doing this kind of work is incredibly tough and I think it requires a special type of personality that can exist in the chaos of it. Every day is constant problem solving. There’s a lot of liability and risk of losing money at every turn. Its physically demanding and sometimes requires working absurdly long hours to meet a deadline and make a high quality product. Designing and building things is the easy part. Managing this type of business is definitely the hard part, but I prefer it to an easy job that is not demanding of me. That’s my personal nightmare. I’m sure that other business owners can relate.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I mainly design and build interior objects like furniture, both for myself and for other designers. I also build props, retail displays, and cabinetry. I think I’ve established a little niche building certain kinds of objects, which tend to be very contemporary, curvy, or irregularly shaped. My friends have dubbed me “the curved wood guy.” I learned how to build bentwood pieces and use a handful of different materials early on. Since some of that work is very niche I think that led me down a path of pursuing more of those kinds of projects. But if anything truly sets me apart I think it has more to do with my business practices rather than my niche. I’m really selective about who I work with and I do my best to build long-term client relationships.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
You have to accept risk in my business without exception. It takes capital to make this business work and there’s always the risk of losing money. I’ve always been a risk taker in some capacity so it feels natural to me. I think this type of risk just took some time for me to get used to. I’ve never been amazing at managing money and time but I had to learn how to make it work. Improper budgeting and planning will kill your business very quickly. I’m always thinking about tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned to manage risk, however, is to be very careful about only “experimenting” to a certain degree. Most of my work is custom to some degree, so its my first time doing it much of the time. If I never learn new skills or build new types of pieces then my business wouldn’t stay afloat. If I say yes to too many things or take on a project that involves too many unknown variables then I’m at risk of losing lots of time and money. There’s a balance that works and I’ve learned to assess the amount of risk that works for my business.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://studiobigmoon.com
- Instagram: @b_i_g_m_o_o_n
