Our seat at the table
It was always our vision when we began our journey with Hydrowood to see the timber used in creative and sustainable ways.
We imagined long lunches with friends, sitting around a dining table made from Hydrowood, drinking Tassie pinot and sharing stories.
We couldn’t possibly have envisaged that our timber offcuts could be turned into an extraordinary work of art, thanks to designer Brodie Neill.
‘Hypnotic. Intriguing. A masterpiece.’
These are the words used to describe Brodie’s elliptical centrepiece – ReCoil. It’s all this and more.
This striking table represents the dream we both had when we started Hydrowood. The dream that our sustainably salvaged specialty timber would be used by furniture designers and woodworkers to create unique pieces, as well as the timber being used in high-end residential and commercial construction.
Connection to country
Making ReCoil connected Brodie to Tasmania, his birthplace. He wanted to create and share a piece of Tasmanian history through his choice of materials.
Brodie’s mission was to make a sustainable piece, crafting what is considered a waste product into a contemporary design work.
We sent Brodie a smorgasbord of veneer offcuts – three kilometres of veneer, in fact! It consisted of Huon pine, eucalyptus, Tasmanian oak, celery top pine, sassafras, myrtle and blackwood.
"I was interested in trying to make use of the smaller and the forgotten pieces – the pieces that were discarded a lot from panel production and so on," Brodie explained.
Brodie spent 60 hours hand coiling the multi-hued veneers to create the tabletop. The spirals represented the tree’s annual growth rings and the colour combination of seven tree species, ranging from honey to burnt umber, created a mesmerising effect.
Working with wet wood forced Brodie to slow down, making it a cathartic experience, reminding him of a slower life in Tasmania.
"It's been a kind of connection of literally laying the layers around and around," he said. "The process of actually kind of laminating it up was very therapeutic in a way, so it was a real moment to grow and reconnect."
ReCoil was exhibited at London Craft Week 2021 in early October and is currently making its way back to Tasmania via the US, Shanghai, Singapore and Dubai. ReCoil will complete the journey at Design Tasmania in Launceston in 2022.
When art meets industry
The creation of ReCoil was a clever collaboration between design and industry. State Government, Hydrowood, Design Tasmania and Lark Distillery collaborated with Brodie to showcase Tasmanian craftmanship and design using sustainable materials.
The collaboration highlights the essence of Tasmania – the special raw materials, beautifully designed objects and our iconic beverages. Collaborations such as this encourage and inspire innovation with designers locally and across the world and we are proud to be onboard.
“It is the first of a series of projects for Design Tasmania that explore the opportunities for growth through partnerships between design, manufacturing and Tasmanian raw materials,” says Megan Perkins, Design Tasmania Chair.
We are looking forward to more collaborations like this.
Stay tuned for more stories of clever collaborations and ingenious designs using Hydrowood in our blog, eDM and Socials. In the meantime, pull up a chair around our table.
