Reflecting on his formative influences, Berkeley-based artist and designer Rafi Ajl recalls a childhood home filled with “dynamic colors and folk art, antiques, Shaker chairs, a handmade table—a melting pot of design and craft.” His artist mother taught him to sew at a young age, which, in addition to playing with Lego and construction toys, “informed a general approach to making and doing my whole life—this idea of expressing yourself through physical things,” he adds.
Post-college, the Brooklyn native moved to the Bay Area, working with a landscape design firm before entering the master in landscape architecture program at Harvard University. A year later, he returned to the Bay Area, where he began building bike frames. Ajl had previously cycled across the country, and his new career merged two passions: bikes and making. He led bike frame fabrication and design courses at California College of the Arts and ultimately became a student there himself, earning an M.F.A. in design.
Rafi Ajl’s portfolio includes Post and Plane chairs, Ribs side tables, the Elaine’s chair, and the Erratics furniture line.
Rafi Ajl
In 2017, Ajl launched the Long Confidence, a studio in Berkeley that specializes in handmade furniture and home goods. Today, his practice also encompasses designs bearing his name that are “more artistic and collectible,” he says. While his efforts originally focused on wood, he has expanded to glass, brass, and aluminum, often combining various materials and processes. Erratics, a Rafi Ajl furniture series, includes what he describes as “sculptural perches,” comprising wood, sisal, and cast brass (all the metal casting is done in-house).
For his glassware, he works with a local glassblower. Over time, Ajl’s experience with the material led to creating bigger pieces such as one-of-a-kind tables with 18-inch glass bases and metal or wood tops, available through the Future Perfect in San Francisco. He is currently developing larger-scale glass forms for dining and console tables that will debut in a solo show in June 2026. “I’m really driven by process, curiosity, and experimentation,” Ajl says of his ever-evolving practice. “I do a ton of sketching, but I love to just start building—getting things into my hands as soon as I can.”