MONO

A cubic, monolithic, monochrome carved textured stool or side table made from solid stack-laminated sycamore wood

Dimensions: W 380mm x D 380mm x H 440mm 

Mono \ mon-oh

A combining form meaning ‘alone’, ‘single’ or ‘one’

Mono is a solid cubic block of English sycamore wood stack-laminated from offcuts of surplus timber from other commissioned pieces. The smooth circular depressions on opposing sides provide clean geometric relief from the intensity of the carved pattern texture of the vertical faces and also serve as practical handles by which the weighty piece can more easily be lifted and moved. Equally useful as an occasional stool to perch on or a handy low table, the stablity, mass and volume of the piece give it real presence.

Adopting a hybrid craft approach to the making of the piece, the carved texture is cut using a hand-held rotary tool, enabling an efficiency of production that is hard to match with traditional handtool techniques. However, the all-important human judgment in the arrangement of the dimples - their packing and placement - governs the overall look and feel of the pattern. Even when employing powered tools, the process is nevertheless a slow, repetitive, mindful one, a continual balance between order and disorder, between geometric precision and randomness.

The silky pale sycamore is finished with a combination of white oils and waxes to diminish the timber’s naturally creamier tones and yield a more monochrome appearance without entirely masking the natural beauty of the wood grain.