When the tide leaves London, spiky black forms emerge all over the river bed, remnants of old landings and docks of the past. The pitched, weathered & burnt textures created over decades and longer give the river its soul.
The Carbon chair is essentially a unique piece of design art.
The story behind the collection
If you want the in on the background conversation, here we go…
I had the piece in mind for the home of a client with a tidal river view. I live close to the river and love going down on the medieval beach when the tide is out. There are pitched black posts here and there , remnants of the past life of the capital, long before it became the sterilised, zone1 theme park that it is these days. I wanted to create a piece that would look like it was washed up and somehere in between an organic fossilised lifeform and Elizabethan shipwreck.
I’d been working on some other furniture pieces a while ago , built my own steam bending chamber in my attempt ot understand that ancient skill (I’d recommend any one else to try that . it’s mindblowing how you can briefly plasticise a solid piece of oak).
So the steam bent pieces were still in the workshop , hung in the rafters , each one slightly different in curvature as befitting my novice bending skills. I knew one day they would become useful, and here they were the ideal ribs.
They were fresh sanded pale wood, way too fresh. So I burnt them. It’s a technique used in Japan to protect wood , used on the cladding of houses it seals and protects the wood and keeps bugs out.
“I swear to you, sitting a throne is a thousand times harder than winning one”
To add to the story, It was a ritual burning. The first Hive chair I ever made , back in 2001 had been hanging in my folks’ back garden year round ever since and the northern weather finally had taken its toll. a couple of the ribs had split and it was covered in lichen. So this was fuel for the fire , the ribs of the new Carbon chair created from its ashes, completing the circle nicely.
I sed bent steel for the legs and main structure in the fashion that ancient relics are helped out with technology. I remember being amazed by the Viking longboat in the British museum a few years ago, being of solid VIking stock myself (apparently) , amazed like i was seeing the blue whale in the Natural hIstory museum when I was a 5 year old whippersnapper.
So that’s the epic tale of this chair. To me it totally makes sense but I’m happy if you just like the look of it.
Details
| Price | £2500 |
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| Made in our studio by us. Lead time 4-6 weeks. |