At the heart of Another Studio is the creative drive to design and develop new ideas into a finished product. The whole creative process - from initial sketchbook scribbles through to fiddling with prototypes and finally seeing the product in store - still thrills and excites me.

One of the most technically challenging projects we’ve made to date is our new Timber Tailor collection of wooden pendant lights. It’s been a time-consuming process, with many prototypes and techniques trialed and tested along the way. But I’ve been really delighted with the results after officially launching the collection at London Design Week in September 2016. Having just finished making a pair for Morgan Furniture as part of an installation for Clerkenwell Design Week, I thought I’d share some of the creative process with you…

For me the design process always begins with a scalpel and paper. They are the essential tools of my trade. This is how I start my experiments, cutting, scoring and marking up small paper maquettes to get a rough idea of shape and pattern.

With this particular project I developed a completely new way of working with wood veneers. Borrowing pattern-cutting techniques from the tailoring trade, I cut individual shapes into sheets of cherry wood which are fitted together in a repeat pattern to form one single piece.

The sheet veneer is sanded by hand and laminated several times using heat presses to add strength before being carefully folded and formed into the final shape. 

I use contrasting grains of the wood to enhance the design and create a bold pattern, inspired by decorative marquetry and parquet designs. 

Finally, a pleated fabric trim is added (this is a particularly time-consuming process!). Every lightshade takes the best part of a week to make – so each one is completely bespoke and hand made to order.

Browse the full Timber Tailor  collection here.