Obelisk 3

John Makepeace OBE commissioned Foris Studio to make Obelisk 3 after seeing our work at the 2023 Young Furniture Makers Awards in London. I made the piece alongside Josey Garbutt and Krav Metcalfe. The three of us had met while studying at Rycotewood Furniture Centre and set up Foris together in 2023, the practice I ran before starting Lapwing.

Makepeace is one of Britain's most influential furniture designers. He founded Parnham College for furniture makers in 1977 and has spent decades pushing the boundaries of cabinet design. His earlier pieces like the Wings cabinet and Flow chest are known for their sculptural forms. Obelisk 3 continues that approach: a tall, tapering column in blackened oak, the surface wire brushed and scorched by hand, that conceals a fully fitted interior.

The exterior gives nothing away. Open the doors and you find rippled sycamore throughout, a deliberate contrast between dark and light, closed and revealed. At the top there's an adjustable mirror in sycamore and bog oak. Below that, a velvet-lined tray in deep aubergine. The lower section houses six curved drawers in sycamore and magnolia, each slightly different in depth.

The curved, tapering form was technically demanding. Every component had to be made to fit a shape that changes as it rises. It was the most exacting piece we'd made at that point.

Obelisk 3 was exhibited by Sarah Myerscough Gallery at TEFAF Maastricht in March 2024.

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