Another Wonderful Collaboration

This summer, I finally visited Alison Ospina at her enchanted wooden house in West Cork. We'd been talking about collaborating for years, and being there in person was magical. Her home was full of beautiful furniture and art, and for the first time, I could see her chairs up close, touch them, sit on them. We had the most wonderful conversation and I was struck by how much our worlds overlapped.

As I was flipping through one of her books, she said something that stayed with me: "I really wanted to pass my knowledge of chair making on to others". It was a powerful moment.

Alison has been designing and making her graceful, freeform chairs using locally coppiced hazel since 1996. She works with the natural shapes and curves of the wood in what she describes as "a conversation between the tree and the chair maker." In recent years, she's been incorporating textiles into her designs, bringing colour and soft textures to her work.

And now, our collaboration: Alison has created four stools using my textile cut-offs. These textiles are based on my original artwork and were once bags or cushion covers. Each stool is  completely unique, bringing together her mastery of green wood and my textile designs.