Takahashi McGil

Based in their studio in South Devon, woodworkers Mark McGilvray and Kaori Takashi-McGilvray began making simple pieces purely for themselves but their craft has now happily become their livelihood. The husband and wife duo are both graduates of Fine Art at Wimbledon School of Art; with Mark originating from South Africa and Kaori from Japan. From homeware to furniture, they both work on the same pieces, layering up multiple processes and techniques to create complex pieces, all while retaining a feeling of ease and simplicity.

Maker's Story

Based in their studio in South Devon, woodworkers Mark McGilvray and Kaori Takahashi-McGilvray began making simple pieces purely for themselves but their craft has now happily become their livelihood. The husband and wife duo are both graduates of Fine Art at Wimbledon School of Art; with Mark originating from South Africa and Kaori from Japan. From homeware to furniture, they both work on the same pieces, layering up multiple processes and techniques to create complex pieces, all while retaining a feeling of ease and simplicity.

THE PROCESS

Kaori and Mark use a mix of local and sustainable hardwoods to create functional homeware and furniture. They combine time-honoured Japanese traditions honed in Tokyo with western techniques. Together they plane, chisel, turn, wax and lacquer with great precision and attention to detail to create pieces which celebrate the natural beauty of the material.

Q&A

1. What motivates you to make?

We have quite a few methods. When each process is complete, the work can transform into something else - and each work is made up of multiple layers of processes, When our work is complete, it can surprise us with the end result. That gives us an uplifting feeling and we hope our audience feels the same as us or has an even more positive reaction.

2. What and/or who are you most inspired or influenced by?

We continually explore shapes in nature and often look to Japanese crafts, traditional and ancient craft techniques and skills to inspire our work.

3. What is your unique approach to your craft, and how have you honed your skills?

We use local wood whenever possible and use many Japanese tools. We also source our urushi from a urushi specialist merchant in Japan. After studying urushi lessons in Tokyo and learning about the many different ways in which to use it, we have been developing our skills and methods of working with this natural finish to achieve the look and feel want.

4. What is your defining or proudest moment as a maker so far?

Receiving national and international press, including Elle Decoration, Modern Rustic and Design Anthology. We were awarded the Best Maker in South West at the 2021 Craft Festival and won the President Prize at the Devon Guild of Craftsmen Summer Show in 2019. We're also really proud of our urushi collection - we are excited about the work we are producing since learning urushi and are looking forward to the path it will take us on.

5. What is your dream project?

To be honest, what we do now is what we want to do. We feel privileged to make our work how we want and in the way we'd want it to be shown - for both practical work and more personal work. We feel we are very lucky to be able to express ourselves in our work without any limitations or restrictions. If we could keep making and showing to a wide audience all over the world, it would be wonderful.