Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Roman Erlikh. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Roman, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so one thing we think people don’t talk about nearly enough is investments – either time or money. What’s one of the best or worst investments you’ve made and what did you learned from the experience?

Changing manual fabrication tooling to CNC

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Roman Erlikh is a professional woodworker with over 20 years’ experience. Before opening his antique furniture fabrication and restoration facility in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Roman underwent extensive apprenticeships in a variety of furniture fabricating facilities throughout New York. His first furniture collections were inspired by traditional Art Deco and Biedermeier styles interpreted through a modern lifestyle demands.

After completing digital fabrication class in NYC College of Technology, Roman upgraded the studio with 3D modeling and a custom built CNC router. Stepping away from merely utilitarian view of everyday objects, his recent collections are filled with meaningful textual context while incorporating traditional and modern woodworking techniques. Roman is using practical function as a common denominator to create emotionally charged art objects, blurring the boundary between art and function. While appreciating possibilities of ordinary materials, Roman is developing new mixed media multilayered composite varnishes and utilizes decorative gilding and mica veneer to actively engage ambient light, giving an additional aspect to relation of his objects to their environment.

The decision to work in custom format was based on environmental concerns and opposition to culture of mass production and pure consumerism. The choice of materials was heavily influenced by sustainability and environmental concerns. All objects are made locally in the Brooklyn Navy Yard workshop. Elimination of storage and transportation needs for mass-produced furniture in lieu of creating a custom made objects on demand allows us to reduce waste of materials and energy.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Changing from simply restoring 18th and 19th century furniture to reproducing pieces for the clients and switching mostly to custom work

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Not closing down the business during Covid closures and consequently digging out from the debt after.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://romanerlikhstudio.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/romanerlikhstudio/