Totally twisted: the making of Handmade 2015's 'High Eccentricity' stool/pedestal, by Studio Libertiny and Brdr Krüger

Making the most of Brdr Krüger’s famous woodturning skills, the 'High Eccentricity' stool/pedestal by Studio Libertiny is a modern take on the traditional craft technique of off-axis, or eccentric, woodturning. 

The project was first conceived by Tomáš Libertíny when travelling around Mexico's Baja California peninsula. 'As we drove around the rocky shore, I noticed the windswept facades of the cliffs [and] the solitary columns in the ocean,' he explains. 'They were formed by millions and millions of waves and bracing wind, sanded down to a thin stump. I wanted to take that poetry of a windswept survivor from stone into wood – woodturning is a speeded up version of a natural erosion.'

With no final form in mind for the piece, Studio Libertiny teamed up with Brdr Krüger, the lauded Danish woodturning specialists, located just to the northwest of Copenhagen. The collaboration was a new prospect for the company in terms of its complexity and size, explains Jonas Krüger, a fifth generation woodturner whose father led the project. The particular challenge, Libertíny says, 'was to make a woodturned project look organic' – a quietly daunting brief realised with aplomb. 

The 'High Eccentricity' stool's dynamic, asymmetrical shape offers an ever-changing profile. Made from solid Dinesen Douglas pine, the piece’s unexpected form feels tactile and organic. A treatment of iron oxide linseed oil in Dinesen Paris Blue (created by Original Linoliemaling) helps to emphasise the dense grain of the wood. It's a piece, Kruger admits, that is a success due to the merging of disciplines brought about by the collaborative process.

'We believe that the best results are achieved when designers and craftsmen work together throughout the entire process; this way, you get the best of both worlds – the creative visions and the knowledge of materialising them.'

Studio Libertiny
Known for his experimental approach, Rotterdam-based Tomáš Libertíny creates extraordinary designs born of his natural curiosity and investigations around nature and science. 

Brdr Krüger  
Danish woodturning specialist Brdr Krüger was founded in 1886. With unrivalled craftsmanship, the family-owned firm reinterprets mid-century Danish design in a contemporary way. 

The High Eccentricity' stool featured in the August 2015 edition of Wallpaper* (W*197)