Who We Are

Rainey Rawles is an artist, designer, and fabricator originally from Atlanta, GA and now based in Knoxville, TN.

Before founding Curio, Rainey spent over a decade working across museums, galleries, higher education, and independent fabrication. She served as Preparator of Fabrications for the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, where she led exhibition fabrication, installation, and custom-built elements for the museum. Her background also includes exhibition design and gallery coordination, art handling, woodworking, and custom fabrication.

Rainey is also a practicing artist with a BFA in Drawing and Painting from Kennesaw State University. Her studio art background continues to shape the way she approaches design.

Prior to Curio, she founded Naughty Pine Woodworks, an independent furniture design and fabrication business serving clients throughout East TN.

Through Curio, she brings those experiences together in a broader practice focused on thoughtful, specific spaces, objects, and custom-built work.

Daniel Clay is a woodworker, designer, and artist living and working in Knoxville. His woodworking education began in 2005 with a boatbuilding apprenticeship at The Carpenter’s Boatshop in Pemaquid, ME. His experiences building and restoring traditional wooden boats led him to explore other woodworking and design disciplines including timber framing, furniture, cabinetry, and traditional woodcarving.

As a founder of Curio, Daniel brings a deep understanding of furniture design, fine woodworking, and artistic practice to the custom projects that land on our workbench.

Alongside his studio practice, Daniel travels throughout the U.S. teaching woodcarving. His writing has appeared in Fine Woodworking Magazine, and he is the author of Chip Carving: Techniques for Carving Beautiful Patterns by Hand.

Curio is a Knoxville-based design + build studio led by principals Rainey Rawles and Daniel Clay.

A woman with short, wavy brown hair and glasses smiling at the camera. She is wearing a denim jacket and a black top, sitting at a table in a room with bookshelves and lighting fixtures in the background.
A man wearing sunglasses and a black shirt sitting at a wooden desk with a ginger cat on his lap, facing a laptop and looking at the screen, with a notepad and pen on the desk.