Whirl & Whittle

Pooja Pawaskar embraces the imperfections in her works. While some designers strive for flawlessness, Indian-born, Canadian-based Pooja Pawaskar creates wooden and ceramic pieces that honor the inherent beauty in each object's peculiarities.

Her formal education is in architecture and furniture design, a path greatly inspired by her grandfather. After working for a few years as a furniture designer, her love for starting her own studio came calling. In 2019, she launched Whirl & Whittle in Ottawa, Ontario. Her designs draw heavily from personal experiences and the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, which favors imperfection and impermanence over flawlessness. Like every woman on this planet, Pawaskar has dealt with her own set of insecurities. Each collection that comes out of her is a way of healing. For her first collection, Your Scars Are Beautiful, she hand-turned woods with burls and spalting into a series of vessels that highlight rather than disguise the flaws. Her second collection, Ode to her Body, paid homage to changing female bodies.

In November 2021, she introduced her first furniture collection, 'Not whole, but complete' —including three mirrors with hand-carved spalted wood and a coffee table with a rippled tabletop with an imprint that doubles as a catchall tray. The pieces in this collection are undoubtedly sculptural without sacrificing functionality.