benches boxes and chests chairs low tables & stools
Displayed at Marchmont House
Retriving wood stock sometimes means cleaving up on site where the tree was felled. The benches above were luckily souced from a damaged giant hedge-tree on the edge of my village.
Finding wood suitable for bench lengths is difficult. I'm indebted to local wood-cutters for the good logs above, found in the Scottish Border areas of Eccles, Kelso and Nisbet village in that order here.
Long cleft oak Bench of Kelso timber.
Modest in shape - yet like no other, each riven product has an individuality that goes beyond the visible surface. It's intrinsicaly bound to the inner-growth of the mother tree. The pleasure in splitting is the discovery of something new. Hand finishing the surface with wooden-planes, adze or spoke-shave continues an affinity to the material and its workability and leaves behind its subtle rythmic marks.
Riven, coloured and carved.