About Joris
	Rotterdam, 1972
	I grew up in Crooswijk, Rotterdam in a period the neighbourhood was completely being rebuilt. My father was an artist and my best friends father a carpenter. So I saw a lot of things being created in my early years. After highschool I tried physics at Delft University for a couple of months but soon found this wasn't the right study for me. The rest of the year I had several jobs including a welders, a furniture makers and a plumbers apprentice. Then I started Interior Architecture and Design at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. During my study I did a one month internship at Hans Kolpa, a sheetmetal furniture designer and fabricator. I also did a three month exchange with the ENSAD academy in Paris where I studied Mobilier (furnishing). After I graduated in 1999 I started my own business. I was lucky to find a studio at Cucosa, an artists initiative in a squat under the Hofplein Station in the center of Rotterdam. I started out with just a jig saw and a drill driver and for years invested every penny I could spare in tools and machines. I slowly moved from mainly working with wood to mainly working with steel. Over the last couple of years I have been focusing on sheetmetal shaping. Since I have been forced to move to a smaller shop early 2013 I no longer have a decent woodworking shop.