Who:
Product and furniture designer Bethan Laura Wood graduated in 2006 with a degree in 3D design from the University of Brighton and went on to the Royal College of Art where she studied under the tuition of Jurgen Bey and Martino Gamper inthe design products department. She founded her own practice, Wood London, in 2006.
Why:
Wood’s furniture and lighting pieces often combine workaday materials such as plastic laminate and Pyrex glass with artisan techniques including marquety and glass blowing, creating objects of intricate beauty. She has been a designer in residence at the Design Museum in London and her work is nominated in two categories of this year’s Designs of the Year competition.
Where:
woodlondon.co.uk
1. Nominated in the furniture category of the Design Museum Designs of the Year competition, Wood’s Moon Rock tables have decorative patterns inspired by the craters on the Moon. The patterns are created using marquetry techniques in which plastic laminates are cut and inlaid by hand in concentric rings and other shapes.
2. Produced by Wood during her residency at the Design Museum, Particle is a range of furniture, inspired by crates and packaging materials. The pieces, which are covered with faux wood laminates in various shades, were inspired by the history of the Design Museum’s own building, which was originally built as a banana storage warehouse.
3. Also nominated for the Designs of the Year award (this time in the product design category), TOTEM is a range of lighting products made of hand-blown Pyrex glass, created in collaboration with the artisan Pietro Viero. The collection represents Wood’s fascination with the layering and mixing of different shapes, colours and textures.
