Wasp-Waist Table

A collaboration with ceramic artist Sarah Nikitopoulos

The Wasp-Waist Table was originally conceived for one of my earliest furniture commissions, with a panel of cherry wood inset into the bronze top rim (to harmonize with the commissioning client's other, more traditional furniture). Over the years, I’ve often created multiple iterations of favored designs, enjoying the opportunity to explore variations in form, gesture, and detail, as well as to revisit certain technical challenges of the craft with a more experienced hand. And while I've always considered the Wasp-Waist one of my strongest works, I had never found the right reason to revisit the design.

Meanwhile, I’d been admiring Sarah Nikitopoulos' functional ceramics. Her crystalline glazes spoke to me of growth processes and patterns that seem perfectly organic and at the same time exquisitely crafted. When I first saw some wall pieces by Sarah composed of tightly packed hexagonal elements I found an inviting link between Sarah's work and my own. The echoes in Sarah's panels of the hexagonal structures of insect nests and compound insect eyes reverberated with my own aesthetic concerns and suggested the next stage of evolution for the Wasp-Waist Table.

Sarah eagerly accepted the challenge, and soon we were exchanging images of colored beetle shells and material samples to make sure we were speaking the same language. I forged and assembled the iron and bronze elements that make up the body of the table while Sarah pursued her vision in forming, glazing, and fitting the over 300 individual tiles that make up the top panel. Finally, the bronze top rim was created around Sarah's spectacular tile composition and the Wasp-waist table emerged from its long hibernation.