Ballerina Table Collection

The original brief called for a pedestal table for 1-3 people, to be used as a meeting table in a retail banking environment.

The design starts at the point where the knee meets the centre point of the table, approximately 500mm from the floor. The footprint required for stability, the necessary clearance for the knee and the bracing required for the tabletop, together dictate the curve of the form. That curve, comprised of 2mm wood veneers pressed into shape, iterates 10 times, completing a full circle. The tabletop is manufactured using both solid wood and wood veneer, in American oak and Walnut. A steel plate mates the pedestal to the rebated tabletop, allowing for simple packaging, delivery and assembly.

With all components manufactured in New Zealand, using only wood and steel, the range is a locally made product that is a delight to live and work with.

The design of the original pedestal took shape rapidly over the course of two months in 2012, and due to the timeline set by the client the tooling design, prototyping and manufacturing was completed within a year. Over the subsequent 10 years, the details of the finished product have been refined, as various commissions have provided the opportunity to experiment. Approximately 20 different shapes and sizes have been tested, and some prototypes that can't be manufactured the same way have been made by hand, including several tall variants.