Bryan Cush, In Clover (TABLES, CHAIRS, DESKS 2022)

Photos:

Pier Carthew

This dining table was a collaborative piece; designed by John Wardle, detailed and crafted by Sawdust Bureau for 'Relatively Useful' an exhibition at the Heide Musuem of Modern Art showcasing several of John's designs for Melbourne Design week 2022. The leatherwood for the frame and Tasmanian Oak for the top were sourced from Hydrowood. The table features clover-shaped legs which penetrate the top and a sliding tray which glides down the centre of the split top. Designer’s statement: ’I sketched a myriad of shapes for legs that when extruded through the table top could form some kind of emblem. A four-leaf clover in its perfect geometry of intertwined radiuses suggests the good fortune of sharing a table and bountiful sociability. Tasmanian Leatherwood can no longer be harvested due to it’s importance for Tasmania’s apiarists. It is only these trees harvested from the bottom of Lake Pieman that allows us this opportunity.’ John Wardle Maker’s statement: ‘The complex profile of the legs required us to break up of each clover into 4 separate quadrants with the connection mortises pre-cut to attach into the frame. The quadrants were then CNC machined by the incredible team at LikeButter and they we assembled them into the clover form. The biggest challenges involved in this piece were an Australian summer heatwave causing havoc with the laminations and the pressure of working with such a rare timber.’ Bryan Cush Sawdust Bureau

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.