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© Helena Gore
© Wycliffe Stutschbury
© Rohan van Twest
© Hattie Stutchbury

Wycliffe Stutchbury

  • Woodworker
  • London, United Kingdom
  • Master Artisan
Wycliffe Stutchbury Woodworker
© Alun Callender

A sense of place

  • • Wycliffe trained with master furniture designer Rod Wales
  • • He is inspired by forgotten or fallen trees
  • • The title of each work reflects the location where the timber was found

Wycliffe Stutchbury's love affair with wood started with his father’s toolbox. “He had this box and when you opened it up, all the woodworking tools had their own little places, their own little clips and their own compartments,” he says. Wycliffe went on to work as a successful furniture maker for 25 years, but eventually realised that his heart wasn’t in it any more. His passion was for the wood itself, not furniture. After graduating in 3D craft from the University of Brighton, he started to create abstract landscapes and sculptures in timber. “I’ll cut a piece of wood open and it will be the characteristic of the timber, the colour, the grain direction or the texture, which will lead me,” he says.

Read the full interview

Works

  • © Wycliffe Stutchbury
  • © Wycliffe Stutchbury
  • © Wycliffe Stutchbury
  • © Wycliffe Stutchbury
  • © Wycliffe Stutchbury
Photo: © Wycliffe Stutchbury
Hundred Foot Drain

This three-panelled screen was made from oak excavated from a peat bog in the East Anglian Fenlands where it had lain buried for 4,500 to 5,000 years. Over that time the acidity in the water reacted with the tannins in the oak and turned the timber a shade of charcoal. The landscape in East Anglia is flat, bleak and unforgiving, and Wycliffe wanted to convey a sense of the Fens in this piece.

Length 185 cm
Height 180 cm

Photo: © Wycliffe Stutchbury
Hundred Foot Drain 5

These tall standing forms were carved from oak excavated from the East Anglian Fenlands where it had lain buried in a peat bog for 4,500 to 5,000 years. Wycliffe’s inspiration for this sculpture was an intuitive reaction when he contemplated the wood, which is tough and dense, yet with a fragile, almost fossil-like outer surface. He wanted to convey the timber’s strength and resilience but also its inherent fragility and beauty.

Length 49 cm
Height 106 cm
Width 15.5

Photo: © Wycliffe Stutchbury
Hundred Foot Drain 2

This three-panelled screen was made from oak excavated from a peat bog in the East Anglian Fenlands where it had lain buried for 4,500 to 5,000 years. Over that time the acidity in the water reacted with the tannins in the oak and turned the timber to a shade of charcoal. The landscape in East Anglia is flat, bleak and unforgiving, and Wycliffe wanted to convey a sense of the Fens in this piece.

Length 185 cm
Height 180 cm

Photo: © Wycliffe Stutchbury
Annie’s Wood: Hundred Foot Drain 2

This three-panelled screen was made from excavated bog oak on one side, felled holly on the other. Wycliffe names his pieces after the places in which the wood was found. He considers the close grain, crisp edges and fine details of holly to be the closest material to ivory that he knows. Making the best of these qualities, he wanted to create a canvas of lines and shadows that contrasts with the darker bog oak on the reverse side of the screen.

Length 185 cm
Height 180 cm

Photo: © Wycliffe Stutchbury
Annie’s Wood: Hundred Foot Drain 1

This three-panelled screen was made from excavated bog oak on one side, felled holly on the other. Wycliffe names his pieces after the places in which the wood was found. He considers the close grain, crisp edges and fine details of holly to be the closest material to ivory that he knows. Making the best of these qualities, he wanted to create a canvas of lines and shadows that contrasts with the darker bog oak on the reverse side of the screen.

Length 185 cm
Height 180 cm

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