Synopsis: All of the work by Barnaby Ash and Dru Plumb is based on historical bronzes and pottery. The piece featured here was turned from a single piece of green English oak and is based on the ancient Greek amphora, a vessel for storing water or wine.

Turned from a single piece of green English oak, with handles integral to its body, this piece by Barnaby Ash and Dru Plumb is based on the form of ancient Greek amphorae, which were vessels for water or wine. All of Ash and Plumb’s work derives from historical bronzes and pottery. They aim not to duplicate the originals that inspire them, but to interpret and reanimate them on the lathe. They favor green English oak, Ash says, “for the complexity of its grain and because it’s quite prone to warping and cracking, which suits our style of work.”

The hunk of oak for this piece came from a sawmill near their workshop in the south of England that specializes in cutting for timber-frame buildings. The mill’s offcuts are typically sold as firewood, but Ash and Plumb scoop them up for turning—and for a bit of scorching.

They achieve their finish not in a fireplace but with a propane torch. After charring the piece, they brush off the ash to expose the grain and then apply a lime wash, which responds to the tannins in the wood to produce an amber color shift. They follow that with Danish oil, Renaissance wax, and a burnishing with a stiff brush. —Jonathan Binzen

The Future of Woodworking: Barnaby Ash and Dru Plumb

Utilizing green English oak sourced locally, Ash and Plumb produce pieces inspired by neolithic and medieval pottery and ancient bronzes from Chinese, Greek and Roman, English, and Etruscan sources. Their aim is to find something more elusive: “We try to tap into ones that feel deeply personal and human—that people will be instinctively drawn to whether they understand the history or not.”

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