Heritage through modern craftsmanship
BARNABY ASH AND DRU PLUMB ASH & PLUMB
UNITED KINGDOM
THE DESIGNERS It’s taken Barnaby Ash and Dru Plumb a while to find their true creative calling. They worked in the UK and Australia (Plumb’s homeland) in fields as diverse as fashion, adventure sports, marketing and financial tech, before settling in Brighton in 2017. It was then that Ash’s passion for woodwork sparked, initially through teaching himself the necessary skills to craft furniture for their home and, thereafter, when introduced to woodturning. In 2020 the couple founded their studio in a rural workshop. ‘We enjoy having different areas of expertise within our partnership, but we do share some responsibilities too,’ says Ash.
They work together to conceptualise collections. Ash is largely responsible for the making, from wood-turning and hollowing, to carving and patination, while Plumb contributes delicate waxed stitchwork to vessels that crack whilst drying (‘a celebration of the natural imperfections within the material’). He’s also responsible for photography, marketing and social media. In 2022, Ash was awarded a QEST Scholarship, an opportunity to further hone his skills. The studio’s work has been exhibited at galleries and art fairs, with a vessel recently acquired by Brighton Museum.
THEIR WORK Ash & Plumb draws inspiration from ancient and classical forms. ‘Some of our earliest pieces have been takes on British Neolithic and old Saxon vessels,’ says Plumb. ‘Recently we studied a selection of Roman pottery (some discovered within a few miles of our house) at Brighton & Hove Museums; this will definitely influence our future work.’ Evidence of similar references is noticeable in existing pieces, which range in scale from the handheld to heights of 80cm. Titles include evocative words like amphora, annulus, psykter and cauldron, nodding to the rituals associated with these reimagined archetypal forms. Each vessel is sculpted from a single piece of sustainably sourced, unseasoned oak.
ON THEIR PROCESS ‘We sketch ideas first to try capture a feeling that excites us before taking it into three dimensions. Things do have a habit of evolving, especially if there’s a particular feature within the wood that we want to include in the piece,’ says Ash. ashandplumb.co.uk
Reflections on a homeland
HANNEKE LOURENS
USA
THE DESIGNER ‘As a South African designer living abroad, I feel like African design is often under-represented in the industry’s Euro-American-centric design landscape. I’ve noticed there’s a disconnect when people engage with, or talk about, design coming from the African continent,’ says California-based Lourens, who studied fashion design in London before relocating to Los Angeles in 2015. ‘Many people immediately think of traditional craft – valid in its own right – but underestimate the depth and complexity of contemporary African design.’ After attending a woodworking college in Northern California, Lourens founded her eponymous studio before last year launching Corrugated, her first collection. ‘I’m hoping that with these five pieces I can help create a dialogue around design rooted in Africa,’ she says.
THE COLLECTION Her designs for Corrugated’s tables and chairs draw inspiration from the ubiquity of corrugated metal sheets in urban South African landscapes. ‘I enjoy elevating the unexpected, and love that corrugated metal isn’t normally associated with beauty and quality.’ Surfaces in each piece, handcrafted from white oak, mimic waves within corrugated metal, with the interplay between highlights and shadows resulting in aesthetically-pleasing surfaces. But this chiaroscuro-like undulation also nods to the stark contrast between South Africa’s natural beauty and its more troubling issues (like rising unemployment). To this end, Lourens donates a percentage of Corrugated’s sales to Learn to Earn, a Khayelitsha-based skills development organisation.
ON WORKING WITH WOOD ‘Wood is a very contradictory material: it’s strong and reliable, but also wonderfully unpredictable as it naturally changes shape and colour over time. It’s also versatile: it allows me to be considerate and precise if needed, but also loose and sculptural when I want to be. I can carve, bend, steam, sculpt, flatten, shape, stain and mould it into almost anything my heart desires.’ hannekelourens.com
Pioneering colouring wood
HERMAN ØDEGAARD AND MIKKEL JØRAANDSTAD STUDIO SLØYD
NORWAY
THE DESIGNERS ‘Our studio takes its name from the Swedish word slöjd, meaning craft or handiwork. It’s a concept taught in Scandinavian elementary schools, and emphasises practical, hands-on skills like woodwork and sewing,’ says Studio Sløyd’s design duo, who met and became friends while studying at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. ‘Sløyd teaches creativity, problem-solving and the development of fine motor skills through making tangible objects.’ Invention and problem-solving have been the focus of Ødegaard and Jøraandstad’s own studio, launched six years ago, with no project quite as revolutionary for the future of woodwork as Roggbif.
UNDERSTANDING ROGGBIF Roggbif is a collection of 24 playful and, more significantly, colourful stools named after the Norwegian acronym for the colours of the rainbow. ‘Rather than starting with a shape or form, we turned our usual process on its head, experimenting our way to a new material,’ Ødegaard explains of their technique for dyeing (or ‘through-colouring’) entire blocks of wood, here Norwegian birch. The studio believes it has pioneered the process, one that involves placing timber blocks in a vacuum chamber along with pigments and liquids. The outcome is wood that’s coloured through, unlike traditional approaches to colouring wood that see hues applied only to timber’s outer surface. Roggbif offers manufacturing processes that extend furniture’s longevity. ‘This is something we’ve not seen done else – where,’ says Jøraandstad. ‘Think of the possibilities (including for repair) that come with being able to sand and work with the material after colouring it, rather than the reverse.’
ON ROGGBIF’S AESTHETICS The stools are evidence of the material’s aesthetic advantages; many artfully combine woods dyed with different pigments. ‘We regard the coloured wood as valuable, and when designing the stools, aim to minimise waste. As a result, the material often dictated their shapes, with many pieces crafted from cut-offs and leftover scraps.’ studio-sloyd.com
Reviving dying African crafts
OLORUNFEMI ADEWUYI OMI COLLECTIVE
NIGERIA
THE DESIGNER To call Lagos-based Olorunfemi Adewuyi only a woodworker is to shortchange his design knowledge and the strength of his eye. Adewuyi, an architecture graduate from Covenant University in Nigeria, founded Omi Collective in 2023. The architectural studio works across the fields of architecture, object and furniture design, urbanism and research, with a specific interest in archiving and reviving dying traditional crafts. He’s also one of Wallpaper’s 10 emerging designers in the publication’s 2025 Next Generation issue.
THE FURNITURE COLLECTION ‘Omi Objects is the vehicle through which our furniture projects are realised. We strive for beauty, but with a sense of heritage, nostalgia, sensuality and tactility,’ explains Adewuyi. By reintegrating dying practices into the design of contemporary furniture, the collective hopes that such humanisation might help define a strong Nigerian aesthetic globally. The collection’s Series 1 – inspired by timber carving and bronze guilds in Benin City – includes an armchair, standing mirror, coffee and side tables, the creation of which seeks to revive such age-old crafts. Series 2 launched this year, with the design of an innovative six-legged stool that can be separated into three individual stools.
CONCEPTUALISING THE OMI SERIES 2 STOOL The collaborative piece, comprising three timber seats connected by a steel rod, was a response to Adewuyi questioning what defines African seating – specifically in terms of global perceptions. Wood was the material of choice for its historic significance in traditional African object-making, and because it allows for tactility in the form of hand-carved textures on the underside of each seat. It’s such artisanal mark-making that Adewuyi, in the face of mass production, regards as a fading skill. The seat’s bold blue colour references an indigo prevalent in West African textile production. Dismantling and reconfiguring the stools to create seating for any number of people not only creates interaction among users, but fosters a sense of community. omi-cv.com
Reimagining the 21st-century domestic goddess
SOPHIE SELLU GRAIN & KNOT
UNITED KINGDOM
THE DESIGNER Interviewed by Alexa Chung for British Vogue, invited to be a judge on BBC’s reality series Handmade: Britain’s Best Woodworker as well as for the Dezeen Awards 2023… None of this would have happened if woodworker Sophie Sellu wasn’t made redundant from design jobs twice within a short period, and hadn’t sought a worthwhile distraction from screen time. In 2013, she enrolled in a spoon-carving course that reawakened her passion for the basic woodworking she had learnt at school. Later that year, she launched her studio, Grain & Knot. Over a decade later, her seasonal homeware collections regularly sell out within hours of being posted online.
THE NATURAL HOME ‘I like reimagining mass-produced functional objects to make them more beautiful and personal,’ London-based Sellu says of her creative drive. For her, there’s value in adorning the modern home with handmade pieces rich in narrative, and it’s this intention that has her carving tabletop brushes, bud vases, dishes and utensils for the sustainability minded shopper. ‘Each item is made from reclaimed, storm-fallen or sustainably sourced timber,’ she explains, as environmental awareness is a core value. Initially, an uncle working in renovations was the source of her materials, supplying Sellu with wood salvaged from period homes. Today, Sellu works with a family-run woodland in Kent, where she sources sycamore, hornbeam, cherry, ash, oak and silver birch timber that’s fallen as a result of storm damage or disease, or that may be perilous to the public.
ON HER PROCESS To minimise wood waste, Sellu’s creative process begins with a quick sketch, her inspiration as diverse as natural forms, embroidery and vintage maps. She then creates paper templates of these organic shapes. After pairing them with timber, Sellu cuts the wood with a bandsaw, before whittling away at each piece, primarily with a Swedish carving knife. grainandknot.com
by Martin Jacobs
