Kusunoki- coffee table.

Kusunoki — Coffee Table

In Japan, the camphor tree is called kusunoki, and it's often planted at shrines and treated as sacred. In the Northern Rivers it's a weed, cut down and pulled out wherever it spreads. This table takes the same tree and gives it the respect it gets on the other side of the world.

The top is a slab of reclaimed camphor laurel, about as wide as it is long, and it's left close to how the tree gave it up: open checks, a dark knot near the centre, and edges blackened by fire. The red at its heart wasn't added. It was already in there. It rests on three columns of Australian hardwood, charred by hand using shou sugi ban and brushed back until the grain stands proud.

It sits low and heavy, and it's made to be lived around rather than looked at. It's one of one and won't be made again.

Details

• Reclaimed camphor laurel top, charred Australian hardwood base
• 110 × 110 × 38 cm
• Hand-charred (shou sugi ban) and hand-finished in Byron Bay
• One of one
• $7,990 AUD