Original woodwork
Water tables workshop
Colin Watmough's workshop is light, airy, and considering the amount of activity that must go on here, surprisingly uncluttered. In the middle of one wall there's a small stove burning sawdust and offcuts of wood. Three tabletops are propped against one wall, waiting for a final sanding or another coat of lacquer and the walls are hung with long sash cramps and shelves bearing bundles of veneers, but apart from these the room is relatively empty.
Colin has been making tables with inlaid marquetry designs for more than twenty years and in that time he's developed a remarkable series of "water tables' that create the effect of looking into a stream or pool of water. Many of the designs include schools of fishes, often cleverly distorted as if seen through the surface of water, Colin tells me: "I like to allow the wood to speak for itself with a minimum of interference and detail. I look for images that I can use within each sheet of veneer."
He shows me a panel where the grain of the wood seems to naturally suggest the curves of a fish. The wood has a natural play of light that changes as you move around it. Colin uses scorched sycamore or beech to create pebbles, and the wild, swirling grain of burr veneers to suggest the bottom of sandy rock-pools or riverbeds. The sheets cut by hand then carefully positioned so that they appear to merge and blend into one continuous, fluid form. When each panel is completed it is pressed onto a birch plywood base then given as many as eight coats of lacquer before being cut back to a glass like finish. The panel is then fixed to a solid timber frame and bolted to an underframe with either solid legs or arched trestles.
Colin has recently been working on underframes that can be dismantled, allowing them to be packed flat. Despite the subtlety of Colin's designs, the tables are designed for real life. Colin tells me: "My dad was a French polisher - you couldn't put down a cup of tea without a pad, a mat and a saucer, otherwise it made a white ring on the surface, but the development of stable modern lacquers that are tough, waterproof and glass clear has made it possible to produce surfaces that are both versatile and desirable".
"I like to allow the wood to speak for itself with a minimum of interference and detail. I look for images that I can use within each sheet of veneer."
