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Method

  • ABOUT
  • Selected Works
  • contact
  • OUR TEAM
  • TRUNK WORKS
  • FURNITURE

The Glenturret 50

Consultancy, Creative Direction & One-Off Artisanal Manufacture + Copy and Film (Creative Direction)

The Glenturret, in Perthshire, is the oldest working distillery in Scotland - and the single cask of 1972 spirit they have just bottled is the oldest they’ve ever released. To augment this historic release, Method was challenged to devise something equally unique, forming part of Lot #1, for decanter #1, at a special Sotheby’s auction.

It was to Loch Turret, and to the brand’s own creed: By Hand & Heart that we turned for inspiration. Commissioning Edinburgh based artist Matthew Draper to create a diptych artwork of the freshwater loch and river that has fed the distillery since it opened its doors in 1763. Draper, whose work we have long admired, works with his hands, responding emotionally to the landscape, instinctively communicating the interplay between light, water, and land. Perfect. It was to the oak cask itself – infused as it is with remnants of the spirit – that we turned for art supplies. (The film will explain.)

Our own team of craftsmen handmade the sculpted oak encasement, fluted and ebonised to evoke the remarkable black Lalique decanter that houses the liquid.

Film: Edinburgh Film Company

Score: Engine7

Main Image: Shannon Tofts

One of One: Uaine 1987

Consultancy, Design & One-Off Artisanal Manufacture

+ Copy

Designed to house a stunning jade-green Lalique crystal decanter, and filled with the Glenturret’s Uaine 1987, this one-off chest for Sotheby’s One of One charity auction demanded to be anything but ordinary.

[The piece exceeded expectations raising over £35,000]

For us, as designers more than a little obsessed with nature, the confluence of the Glenturret’s location - on the banks of the Turret River - and the sophisticated organic lines of Lalique’s crystalware was simply too good an opportunity to pass up.

From the first sketch, we tried to pay homage to that sinuous Art Nouveau elegance, whilst also evoking a sense of place and of timelessness befitting Scotland’s oldest working distillery.

The One of One Chest was sculpted by hand at our workshop from rippled Scottish sycamore, locally sourced and carefully selected for its pale, lustrous grain feature. Here we have intentionally used both a material and a quality of finish that calls to mind pearl, bone, or ivory – as René Lalique might have – keeping the tones of the palette as neutral as we can, to allow the stunning jade-green crystal decanter and the liquid within to take centre stage. Detailing is in 24ct gold and sumptuous Scottish leather.

Scottish sycamore, 24ct gold, brass, Scottish leather

Images: Marc Millar

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ecco leather: The FACTORY PETIT

Consultancy, Design & Artisanal Production

+ Copy, Photography, Film & Score (Creative Direction)

“So. F&$#ING. COOL!”  - Panos Mytaros - Group CEO Ecco Shoes

The Factory Petit was created for the world's most progressive tannery, Ecco Leather, to de-mystify their groundbreaking artisan craft production processes, by bringing them out into the world.

We worked closely with Ecco Leather's leather design team and CEO - attending their renowned 3-day Hotshop leather laboratory event in the Netherlands and collaborating live at the Bread and Butter fashion event at Tempelhof in Berlin - to fully understand their unique needs. This set up wasn’t just about sales and finish presentation, it was a genuine workshop: an interactive factory environment allowing visitors to create new leathers and customised leather accessories - start to finish.

Internally the series of trunks housed a fully functional collection of heavy-duty industrial machinery (including concealed cast iron sewing machines on theatrical hydraulic lifts, multi-speed polishing machines, riveting machines, and hardwearing worktops) but the modular design and customised castor-wheel system allowed each trunk to be moved, combined and set-up by virtually anyone with minimal effort.

The series has now been used - in a variety of set ups - as far afield as Dubai, Japan, and Australia, travelling in a custom-fit-out shipping container, designed and tailored by Method.

Ash, organic leather, brass, steel, HDPE, perspex & acrylic

Images: Graeme Hunter Pictures

Film: Edinburgh Film Co

Fim Score: Engine7

 

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AESOP: EDINBURGH BOUTIQUE INTERIOR

 Collaborative Design, Artisanal Production & Installation

“We sincerely thank you for all the tremendous work and beautiful detailing”

Deidra Hodgson, UK Construction & Visual Merchandising, Aesop

Even with architecture woven into our DNA, it’s rare that we take on an interior fit-out project (the only other notable exception in recent years being Edinburgh Castle’s Mary Room: the birthplace of King James VI, future first monarch of Scotland, and a project designed not to date for “200 years”). But when Aesop approached us about the interior for their first Scottish boutique, it was an opportunity we simply couldn’t pass up.

Aesop’s design ethos, and the quality of their global interiors - created in sensitive collaboration with local artisans and materials - are truly inspiring to us, and we’re HUGE fans.

After working closely with the brand’s in-house design team to develop their elegant concepts into makeable furnishings, and spending time in the light-drenched space in Stockbridge, we headed out on a hunt for suitable materials.

Their pallete - muted and tactile, and drawing on the sandstone prevalent in Edinburgh's built forms and the raw beauty of the local landscape - made finding the right timber absolutely key to the project’s success. Eventually, we tracked down an entire stand of pale Scottish sycamore in a woodyard near (nope, that’s a secret). We bought the lot and got to work.

The boutique’s floor to ceiling shelving and bespoke furniture was crafted entirely from this ghostly timber (give or take a few solid brass details and brackets); its sinuous ribbon-like grain offset by the angular geometry and dramatic shadow, and soft creamy tone harmonising beautifully with the traditional lime plasterwork finish to the walls.

Solid Scottish sycamore, solid brass, steel & toughened glass

Images c/o: Aesop

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LOCH LOMOND 50

Creative Direction, Design & Small Batch Artisanal Production

+ Copy, Photography, Film and Score (Creative Direction)

Loch Lomond Whisky’s distillery, on the banks of the eponymous loch, is one of Scotland's best kept secrets, combining highly progressive techniques and a fiercely independent spirit.

From the very beginning, the team at Loch Lomond opened their doors and welcomed us in, taking us through their heritage, process and products. This time spent on site with their team, understanding the techniques and the passionate people that make the spirit so individual, helped us get under the skin of the project and create something special. Something fitting.

“The feeling you get when you see moonlight dancing on the water – that chill it sends down your spine…”

Drawing inspiration from the many moods of the loch, the full exterior of each solid oak chest was sculpted to evoke tempestuous water at twilight. A method of randomised chiselling that made each chest very tactile and visually arresting, and very much a one-of-a-kind.

Exterior surfaces were ebonised before being heavily waxed and brushed to best refract the light. Each chest was then lined in a distressed tobacco tan leather, which we blind de-bossed with the limited edtion number, LL branding, and a stylised map of the loch. Lock, key, and branding were subtle, and all in solid brass.

For the integrated miniature (a sample to taste) we turned to the distilleries unique straight neck ‘Lomond Stills’ for inspiration. A slim glass container of the precious liquid was fitted into a lathe-milled vial of solid brass. These were hidden in plain sight within the chest, and used as a further opportunity to display some subtle LL branding - engraved into the cap.

We provided evocative copy for press, pr, and an associated booklet, and worked with Graeme Hunter to capture a full photography package to accompany the finished project. The Tempest film was commissioned to further augment the brand’s marketing campaign. Produced in close collaboration with our good friends at the Edinburgh Film Company and including music from long-time Method collaborator Engine7 (with haunting strings provided Method cabinetmaker and one-time concert violinist, Edward Walton - recorded in a late-night workshop session)

Limited to 60 decanters worldwide [SOLD OUT IN PRE-SALE]

Ebonised oak, leather, brass & glass

Images: Graeme Hunter Pictures

Film: Edinburgh Film Co

Score: Engine7 + Edward & Mari Walton

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Gordon & Macphail - Whisky Tasting Trunk

Collaborative Design, One-Off Artisanal Production

Created in collaboration with the team at Glasgow's Pod Creative for one of the world's leading malt whisky specialists: Gordon & Macphail, this super detailed whisky tasting trunk was designed and handcrafted to enhance Director of Prestige Stephen Rankin's theatrical tasting sessions whilst on the move.

The trunk houses sampling malts from thier incredible collection + nosing glasses and water jug, aroma vials, pipettes, and an ipad, as well as charred oak samples from barrel staves (sealed in individual wooden cases) a journal, and interchangeable storytelling plaques. Drawers are lined in custom friction-fit foam, and the trunk itself travels in a bespoke super-light peli-air wheeled & waterproof transit case.

Poplar, leather, oak, bridle leather, closed cell foam & gold

Images: Pod Creative

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TThe Glasgow school of art: re-imagining Mackintosh

 Design & Small-Batch Artisanal Production

+ Copy

 “…You nailed it” - Tony Chambers, Editor in Chief, Wallpaper* Magazine

“A significant modern re-imagining...” - Prof. Seona Ried CBE, Director, Glasgow School of Art

“Like a flower, our chair is born of a stamen; with the concept revolving around the beauty and vibrancy of the natural form” - Marisa Giannasi, Design Director, Method Studio & GSA Alumni

In 2011 Method were commissioned by the Glasgow School of Art to design and create a new collection of chairs for the school’s prestigious Mackintosh Room. This would be the first time the school had commissioned new bespoke furniture since legendary architect, artist , and designer of the GSA’s building Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Marisa - Method’s Design Director - took an honours degree in architecture at the Mack, and remains (violently) passionate about the building. So this one was personal.

To sit comfortably amongst the Mackintosh Room’s irreplaceable original examples of Rennie Mackintosh’s work, the brief called for a sympathetic design. But we firmly believe that traditions are not honoured through repetition (rather, considered interpretation) so we chose to embrace the artists passions for new materials, Asian styling and flamboyant nouveau influences, with a startling departure from the expected.

Further honouring his spirit, and, somewhat out of necessity, we developed strong working relationships with a team of precision oil-rig-part-engineers, and industrial adhesives experts*, on the fabrication side of the project. (Mackintosh's own designs were thought so outlandish and unexpected that at the time that respected cabinetmakers scoffed - and often he was forced to turn to the lowly journeyman carpenter to bring his creations to life.)

After nearly a year in development the 24 chairs – each handcrafted from solid ash, rose or pastel green precision-engineered solid aluminium, and hand-stitched organic leather from the Tarnsjo tannery in Sweden- now sit alongside some of the world’s most influential furniture. Comfortably, but not too deferentially, we hope

*We also used pioneering adhesives - developed to adhere the bolts into battleships so that direct hit’s from torpedo's won’t shake them loose - for the first time to our knowledge in Scottish furniture making. Another first worth mentioning we think 

Ash, aluminium & organic leather

Images: Graeme Hunter Pictures

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Method x Norlan: KIST

Consultation, Collaborative Design & Artisanal Small-Batch Production

The Kist was developed collaboratively with designer Sruli Recht and the team at Norlan - an international brand focused on modernising the whisky drinking experience through design, science, and ritual.

Norlan's first extraordinary product, the Norlan Glass, was successfully funded on Kickstarter in December 2015, exceeding it's initial funding goal by 1,000%. 

Each solid oak Kist was meticulously handcrafted in highly limited numbers at our workshop in Scotland, and featured a series of faceted edges and details which relate to those found on the Norlan glass. 

Inside, a dusty white, custom laser-cut leather housing served to hold eight Norlan glasses like a diamond holding sunlight. The flat, removable lid was held in place with blackened rare-earth magnets, safely concealing the inverted glasses in their respective silos.

Ebonised oak & leather

Images: Marinó Thorlacius

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Private Collection Showcase

Creative Direction, Design & One-Off Artisanal Production + Copy

“A partnership, based on mututal respect…of oak”

Stephen Rankin, Director of Prestige, Gordon & Macphail

Over 180 individual pieces of oak, precision aligned with 120 mitre-joints, pay homage to the many unbroken connections that make the family business at Gordon & Macphail so very special.

Gordon & Macphail's £100,000 Private Collection was the first of its type from the iconic malt whisky specialist in their 124-year history. Our team was priviledged to partner with Director of Prestige Stephen Rankin and the brand team, to develop and handcraft this unique showcase.

Each Private Collection bottle (including a 1953 Strathisla and 1966 Longmorn) was recessed into a solid oak block crafted from the cask's original staves. Internally the cabinet was lined with Andrew Muirhead Scottish leather and polished brass.

Smoked oak, original whisky cask oak, Scottish leather & brass

Film c/o: Edinbugh Film Company

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vacheron constantin: Tourbillon Minute-Repeater Showcase

Design & One-Off Artisanal Production

+ Copy

“We are delighted to have worked with Method Studio. Their quest to expand their traditional and deep-rooted skills into contemporary frontiers, coupled with their passion for meticulous finish and inscrutable attention to detail, is one wholeheartedly shared by Vacheron Constantin” - Celine Larose, UK Brand Director, Vacheron Constantin

Commissioned by legendary Swiss watchmakers Vacheron Constantin, this bespoke chest was designed to house a one-off tourbillon minute repeater (valued at $1M) created to celebrate the opening of the brand’s first UK boutique.

The interior housed a collection of specialist watch tools, each recessed in its own individual oak jeweller’s drawer. A winder and resonator, and bespoke Method-designed calf leather and brown oak travel case were also secreted within the sculpted oak carcass.

Strong material links with the UK were key to our thinking on palette - so beautiful brown oak from the Althorp estate in Northampton, ancestral seat of Princess Diana, was sourced - and to pay homage to the brand’s heritage of remarkable complications, we designed the chest to require the simultaneous turning of two small keys to be opened.

In a further nod to Vacheron Constantin’s tradition of supporting the next generation of artisan craftspeople, we felt that having a generational aspect to the production would be very appropriate; bringing in Callum’s father David to detail the chest with several exquisite Maltese cross carvings.

The piece was exhibited at both the Royal Academy of the Arts in London and Edinburgh's prestigious Dovecot gallery before being sold (with the watch included) to a private client.

Brown oak, calf leather, bridle leather, superfine suede, bronze & brass

Images: Graeme Hunter Pictures & Andy Bell Images

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Burberry: Bespoke fragrance chests

Consultancy, Collaborative Design & Artisanal Small-Batch Production

“…Their projects are unique and shroud in beautiful craftsmanship” - Neil Sharman, Design Director, Architecture, Burberry

Developed from a Christopher Bailey brief – inspired by the furniture of art deco modernist Jacques Adnet – this small batch production run of chests was created to house the brand’s luxurious bespoke fragrance in global flagship boutiques, allowing clients to create their own unique scent with sales staff – from sampling to perfectly adhering the label – all from one dramatic chest.

The final design involved the combination of polished green Verde marble, full-grain leather, smoked oak, hand-oxidised brass, gold leaf, velvet, and thick bridle leather: a multi-disciplinary production challenge that stretched our workshop team to the limit.

The stunning results can still be experienced at all Burberry's global flagships, as well as Harrods in London.

Verde marble, smoked oak, brass, leather & velvet

Imagery: C/O Burberry

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Bentley - Mulliner

Collaborative Design Development & One-Off Artisanal Production

Developed collaboratively with the talented creative team at MSL Global, this large-scale presentation trunk, for Mulliner (Bentley Motors legendary bespoke coachbuilding arm) was a sophisticated, and highly complex design and production challenge.

Externally the form is wrapped in a sculpted covering of Bentley’s own steer leather, built onto a wheeled metal subframe for mobility, and detailed with custom made steel profiles in a black nickel-plated finish.

Internally, the design features folding magnetic steel doors (CNC-milled with Bentley’s distinctive diamond quilting pattern) to dramatically display finish options. Profiled leather clad drawers allow for storage and serve as a housing for the AV element’s CPU. The trunk also contains LED halo lighting.

Birch, poplar, steer leather, powder coated steel & aluminium

Images: Paul T Cowan

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Mulliner brief

Collaborative Design Development & Small-Batch Artisanal Production

Developed collaboratively with the talented creative team at MSL Global, and taking its design and palette cues from its dramatic big brother - the Mulliner Trunk - the Mulliner Attache was developed as a more portable sales tool from the legendary coachbuilders.

The exterior envelope was wrapped and formed with Bentley’s own distinctive bull leather, with custom hardware and fittings flush-inset into the surface for a smooth profile and a contemporary shape.

Detailing was in custom made and black-nickel-plated steel, with traditionally hand-stitched bridle leather handles (because the handles of a Bentley – a client’s first touch point – are always carefully designed) and a pop of vibrant mandarin orange on the interior, from Muliner’s own range of bespoke colours.

Birch, custom made black-nickel steel & bull leather

Images: Paul T Cowan

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JOHNNIE WALKER - MASTER BLENDER'S TRUNKS

Consultancy, Design & Small Batch Artisanal Production

+Copy

This series of tailor-made travelling trunks houses all of the instruments, rare liquids and glassware required by Johnnie Walker’s master blender Dr Jim Beveridge to create the John Walker & Sons™ signature blend with private clients, anywhere in the world. Adding a little extra theatre and wonder to what is already a very special experience.

In developing the design, our team had the privilege of consulting personally with Jim – to better understand his process and needs. This relationship continued into a second series, as the design was refined and evolved after being used in sessions around the world.

For mobility (and let’s be honest, the theatre of the transformation!) the MB trunk design was split into three separate units, each with its own protective transit case, which could be built into one impactful main piece. The construction was in solid Scottish oak, detailed with London tan leather, solid brass, gold-leaf and thick bridle leather.

Scottish oak, brass, bridle leather & gold leaf

Images: Graeme Hunter Pictures

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Method x denham: The Journeyman - a trunk for a travelling tailor

Creative Direction, Collaborative Design & One-Off Artisanal Production

+ Copy & Photography

“A Virtuoso piece of contemporary craftsmanship...combining a very down-to-earth and practical understanding of the project with their own remarkable conceptual sensitivity” - Liam Maher, Design Director, DENHAM

Designed to evoke the symbolic journey of cult Dutch jeanswear label DENHAM’s very own Journeyman Jeanmaker - founder, Jason Denham - and created to encapsulate and literally transport the brand’s values, early in Method’s story we created what may still be our favourite piece: the Journeyman Trunk

Collaborating closely with the brand’s design director, together we set out to create our own modern interpretation of the classic portmanteau steamer trunk. Paying homage to the brand’s ethos’ of Worship Tradition/Destroy Convention, and the Truth is in the Details and their passion for mining and re-inventing vintage detailing in their garments by looking to unusual places for our own.

Drawing inspiration from birch-bark canoes and bi-plane wing construction, the lightweight birch-skinned construction we developed contained over 600 interlocked components, all handcrafted from solid ash for supple flexibility and strength.

This lightweight skeleton was then skinned with 1.5mm thick birch - inwardly curved to protect the faces when in a horizontal position but negating the need for the traditional cumbersome and chunky rib-protection - before being knitted together with a series of black-Japanned steel fixings. It was then fitted with black butterfly catches and detailed with thick bridle leather handles, and moulded bridle leather edge-protection.

Internally, one side of the trunk’s design featured a lockable drop-down work area, custom-carved by Callum’s father and fitted out with flexible tool straps, and a column of swivelling solid-ash accessory carousels. In the other, we built a generous garment hanging space with a selvedge denim flysheet (buttoned down with the brand’s own steel jeans buttons).

This one-off piece was exhibited widely in the UK and Europe, and was featured in Gestalten’s 2012 book TAKEN BY SURPRISE: CUTTING-EDGE COLLABORATIONS BETWEEN DESIGNERS, ARTISTS, AND BRANDS and FRAME as well as on Hypebeast.com and CoolHunting.com

Just for fun, we also filmed the process. It’s not slick - but it is authentic. Spool to the last image for the youtube link. (And Mr Green, if you’re reading this, I hope you will not mind us using your wonderful music in the clip.)

Ash, birch, steel, iron, copper & selvedge denim

Images: Graeme Hunter Pictures

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STRUTHERS WATCHMAKERS: The theatre of boxes

Design & Small Batch Artisanal Production

One of our proudest longterm associations is with the wonderfully talented husband and wife team at multi-award-winning bespoke watchmakers Struthers Watchmakers

Craig and Rebecca lavish and extraordinary amount of care and attention on their work, but they also believe that the theatre of the reveal and the ritual of using a finely made case adds something magical to the experience of owning one of their watches. It is a belief we wholeheartedly share.

So let’s talk boxes.

We have for several years designed and handmade all of the boxes for Struthers unique and ultra-rare timepieces, each a careful combination of heritage materials, traditional skills and detailing which (we hope) compliments their very individual and meticulously crafted watches.

This example was designed to house Struthers first pocket watch: the Carter, and is inspired by late C19th chronometer ‘deck’ boxes - chosen by Struthers to suit the era of the original movement that the watch was crafted around. (A recommissioned movement made by E.F. Ashley in London in around 1890.)

Deck Boxes were secure portable cases which allowed the very delicate and precious timepieces of the day (critical to non-lethal ocean navigation) to be safely housed on deck. The keys were held only by the captain and master, but even with the box only partially open and the delicate mechanics secure, the watch face was still visible.

The final box - which we crafted from Scottish oak and traditionally smoked for a dark finish - employed a very fine case-lock and a double hinged mechanism. One set of hinges is stopped at 91 degrees and one at 181 degrees, meaning the lids mechanically (and pleasingly theatrically) open one-another as the interior is gradually revealed.

The interior - which is lined with fine goat suede - boasts numerous hidden compartments and lift out sections, all housing components from the original C19th movement. As well as a super-hidden compartment containing a bespoke oak-clad USB with over 100 images documenting the making of the watch.

Fumed Scottish oak, bridle leather, goat suede, stainless steel

Images: Andy Pilsbury

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jaguar land rover: Paris Motorshowcase

 Consultancy, Collaborative Design, Artisanal Production, Project Management & Installation

“...Absolutely fantastic quality and design’

Steve Lidbury, European Creative Director – Automotive, Imagination Europe London

From an initial concept developed in collaboration with the creative team at Imagination London, this series of large-scale presentation trunks was designed to showcase the features and finishes of JLR’s new Range Rover, with an interactive AV and tactile presentation. Initially forming part of Jaguar Land Rover’s VIP area at the Paris Motor show, the trunks were then toured internationally, so longevity was a big part of the design and build considerations from the outset.

This complicated project required the combination of our own workshop team’s production skills with that of the technical team at the Scottish Leather Group, a specialist leatherworker, and an AV/electronics team to fully realise. All of these elements were designed and then finally assembled in-house, before being installed on site in Paris by our team.

Initially constructed from poplar - much like traditional travel trunks - externally all trunks were then clad in a combination of specially tooled, semi-perforated leather and custom-made aluminium hardware and edge protection, designed to echo the contemporary (industrially elegant) lines of the new Range Rover.

Internally we incorporated presentation drawers and shelves, light-box elements, LED 'halo' lighting, leather-bound material swatch presentation ‘books’ and a wirelessly fed audio-visual set-up.

Poplar, Scottish leather, aluminium, perspex, bridle leather & steel

Images: Graeme Hunter Pictures

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Sabre Bar: Liquid Texture carving

Design & Artisanal Production (Made to Order)

Continuing our exploration into organically inspired textures, realised in sculptural solid hardwoods, the SABRE series was first designed as a statement piece for a private client in London. A Freestanding Cocktail Bar and Credenza version are now available to commission in this finish and design, on a made-to-order basis, and in custom sizes to suit client requirements.

The first thing you’ll probably notice about the SABRE Cocktail Bar (Credenza also shown), apart from the fact that it’s a striking shade of indigo, is the choppy textured surface. This style, which gives the series its name, is achieved with long hours of careful carving.

Fluted at the base, merging into the sharp randomised gouges towards the top, the sabre gouges are created using a series of very sharp dish-shaped tools, slicing down into solid Scottish sycamore in an arc. Sycamore was chosen here because the pale hardwood has an unusually buttery, marble-like texture, which allows the sharp lines of the carving to be retained very precisely.

The distinctive indigo stain is layered up by hand, and then carefully cut-back between coats to create a unique wear pattern and depth of colour (a little like denim wear over time). This effect is further exaggerated by sycamore’s natural luminescence, and a layered hard wax finish.

Inside, the cocktail cabinet has a large-scale vented bar fridge in the base section. In the upper area there is storage shelving for bottles and barware, glass-hanging racks, a wine-rack, accessories drawers and bespoke cutting boards, all crafted from quarter-sawn Scottish oak and solid elm. A large-scale peach mirror at the rear and automatic lighting (which switches on as the gullwing doors are opened) give the bar a soft, glowing feel internally, and the cabinet’s hardware and detailing are in bronze and royal blue full grain Scottish leather. And details matter.

The credenza is of course lower and wider, and has a pair of sliding doors, both of which (as well as the sides) are carved with the sabre texture and indigo finished in the same fashion as the cocktail cabinet. The top is a single slab of quarter sawn Scottish oak in an oiled finish, and all interior shelves are also in oak. This piece has the option of a wireless charger integrated into the oak top – for simple clutter free phone charging.

Indigo sabre-sculpted sycamore, quarter-sawn oak, leather, elm, bronze & peach mirror

Made to order only. Contact us for details, pricing, shipping & lead times apply

Images: Graeme Hunter

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METHOD X LONDON UNDERCOVER: Design a good looking umbrella stand

Design & Small Batch Artisanal Production

On the face of it, it doesn't sound unreasonable.

But just try and find one that isn’t awful (we’ll wait).

…Couldn’t?

Neither could we.

So we designed one. 

The design of the umbrella stand we created all those years ago for the good people at London Undercover evokes the opening of an umbrella: revealing a flexible elastic webbing of arrayed spokes, which grips larger umbrella's (and keeps smaller models within easy reach) providing a striking contrast to the golden tones of the solid oak construction. 

The splayed staves promote air circulation, aiding the drying of your umbrella, and a water and rustproof metal drip tray in the base prevents floor damage, and makes emptying simple. 

It looks good too. Seriously good. And that’s pretty impressive - because for our money it's the only one out there that does. Did I say that already?

But don’t just take our word for it (we’re biased after all), Monocle HQ, Monocle Cafe and Moynat Paris all keep their umbrellas in one.

- Sadly Currently Not in Production -

Oak, elastic, birch & powder coated steel

Images: Graeme Hunter Pictures

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father & son

Method's creative director and co-founder Callum Robinson was trained by his father. They then worked together for over a decade in the Robinson family’s tiny rural workshop, on the east coast. of Scotland

To properly explain who designer, cabinetmaker, landscape architect, housebuilder, master woodcarver, and outdoorsman David Robinson is - what he's done, where he's been (and what he's capable of) ...that's a story that demands to be told over a significant dram.

Sufficed to say that virtually everything that makes its way out of the dusty recesses of his brain and into the physical realm is seriously impressive. With his years of broad ranging experience, David acts as an invaluable consultant and senior designer for Method. But just occasionally, when the right project comes along, we also seek to marry his unique style of figurative woodcarving with our designs.

There is something genuinely special about combining his work and ideas with that of the studio. So, if you'd like to discuss commissioning a work which integrates David's work – or simply would be interested in commissioning David to create something utterly one-of-a-kind, please contact us directly. (He hates phones)

David has a significant waiting list, so a lead time applies to all projects

Images: Graeme Hunter Pictures & David Robinson

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Back to Selected Works
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1
The Glenturret 50
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One of One: Uaine 1987
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23
THE FACTORY PETIT
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AESOP STOCKBRIDGE
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LOCH LOMOND 50
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8
Gordon & Macphail
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12
The Glasgow school of art
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5
norlan
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Private Collection Showcase
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14
vacheron constantin
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11
Burberry
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Bentley - Mulliner
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9
Bentley Attache
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17
JOHNNIE WALKER
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16
DENHAM
8. Box small.jpg
5
STRUTHERS WATCHMAKERS
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9
jaguar land rover
IMG_20200127_100814_393.jpg
10
Sabre Bar
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4
METHOD X LONDON UNDERCOVER
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22
father & son

Architects of Objects

Bespoke@methodstudio.co.uk

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