London interior designers and stylists Studio Toogood launch their inaugural furniture and lighting lighting collection made from a mixture of stone, wood and brass inside a west London garage this week.
Top: the Spade range consists of a chair, stool, side table and dining table all made using sycamore and traditional joinery techniques. Above: Element lighting, made from three shapes in wood, stone or brass
Called Assemblage 1 and produced under the label Toogood, the range is on show as part of an exhibition curated by Faye Toogood called Super Natural, which is all about foraging and features a display of wild mushrooms collected from the New Forest by mushroom expert Mrs Tee.
Above: the Element Table is supported on a spherical piece of sycamore, cube-shaped block of stone and cylindrical piece of brass
A collection of handles, knobs and hooks for hardware brand Izé cast from sticks twigs and bones found along the River Thames is also on show (see our earlier story), alongside a series of handbags made of old binocular cases.
Above: Mobile comprises found granite stones balanced against tinted glass cut to standard paper sizes
Super Natural forms part of the London Design Festival and runs until 28 September.
Above: Silo is a cabinet inspired by agricultural storage containers with retractable sycamore doors that roll back
All our stories about the London Design Festival 2010
Above: Bin Bag is a traditional leather binocular case customised to carry items such as iPods and Oyster cards.
See all our stories about Studio Toogood »
Here’s some more from the designers:
Assemblage
Toogood is pleased to announce its first collection of objects. Assemblage, a collection of furniture, lighting and textiles, it uses three recurring elements - wood, brass and stone - with an emphasis on English materials and craftsmanship.
Assemblages of simple geometric forms and raw materials are combined to create a comprehensive collection that is both modern and relevant.
Spade Chair
The spade is an icon of rural life in the English countryside. The Spade chair is a modern tool for sitting. Made by hand using English sycamore, the Spade chair has an elegant and minimal silhouette inspired by the juxtaposition of a three-legged milking stool and the handle of a gardening implement.
With structural honesty at the heart of the design, all of the metal work used to support the thin seat is on full view and detailed in brass. The chair is available in its naked form or with a roll for further support and comfort.
Spade Stool
Made by hand using English sycamore, the Spade stool has an elegant and minimal silhouette. It is a modern reinvention of a traditional three-legged English stool constructed using traditional joinery techniques.
Spade Side Table
Hand-turned from a mono block of English sycamore, the base of the Spade side table has simple cylindrical brass peg system that allows the glass tabletop to float.
Spade Dining Table
Designed to work alongside Spade chair, the Spade dining table features a floating glass top on folding sycamore wood trestle legs constructed using the same dowel technique with brass detail found throughout the collection.
Element Table
Three shapes: Sphere, Cube, Cylinder
Three materials: Brass, Wood, Stone
Unquestionably abstract but nevertheless full of warmth and texture, the Element light uses the same simple shapes as the Element table. The assembled forms create differing tensions depending on which of the three materials the components are translated in.
Element Light 1: Hand-sculpted Perryfield Whitbed Portland stone.
Element Light 2: Sycamore hand-turned on a lathe with a matt varnish.
Element Light 3: Brass turned on a lathe and circular-brushed.
Silo
In agriculture, a silo is a structure for storing grain. This Silo - a modern cabinet - is designed to store personal collections and curiosities.
Hand-made from solid English sycamore, this circular cabinet mimics the silhouette of the original corrugated-metal construction and has slatted tambour doors. The solid-sycamore doors roll back to reveal thin shelves secured in place using cylindrical brass pegs.
Mobile
The Mobile is contradiction that combines regularity with randomness.
Straight lines of solid brass hold in place delicate sheets of tinted glass counter-balanced against weights of granite.
The irregular-shaped rocks find their equilibrium against sheets of glass cut to correspond with ISO paper sizes (A4 and all its siblings), a formula based on a single-aspect ratio of the square root of two.
Bin Bag
A rural object for modern city life. A bag made from an old binocular case, customised by hand using traditional leather-making techniques and given a new purpose. Available in a limited edition of 30.
See also:
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| Sticks and Stones and Broken Bones by Toogood |
Aoyama installation by Studio Toogood |
Corn Craft by Gallery FUMI and Studio Toogood |
