The Dwell 24: Offcut

A former day trader turned woodworker, Jason Lewis turns scrap and leftover wood into furniture.

Jason Lewis was grinding away as a day trader in the late ’90s when he realized he needed an exit strategy. "I was sitting at home, staring at a screen all day," Lewis says. "I just needed to break away and do something different." He had built a pinewood derby car as a kid and dabbled in woodworking in high school, so he signed up for a furniture-making apprenticeship with local woodworking legend Berthold Schwaiger in 2001 and went on to found his eponymous Chicago design studio.

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