SOPHIE SELLUGRAIN & KNOT
南ロンドンの静かなスタジオ。彫刻された木の香りと手工具の痕跡に囲まれながら、 Grain & Knotの創設者であるソフィー・セルは、芸術と機能性の境界を曖昧にするオブジェを制作しています。彼女の作品は触覚と直感に根ざしており、視覚を楽しませるだけでなく、触れたくなるような作品を生み出しています。手彫りのスプーンから彫刻的なブラシまで、ソフィーの作品は不完全さ、遊び心、そして自然素材の美しさを称えています。それぞれのオブジェには、再生木材、じっくりと時間をかけて作り上げられた職人技、そして丁寧な制作過程といった物語が込められています。
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Hi Sophie, thanks for welcoming us into your studio. Can you tell us who is Sophie Sellu?
I see myself as an artist first and foremost, using wood as my primary medium. I try to expand, but find myself returning to wood. I’m also a Londoner. I will also often describe myself as an object maker. I make things you can hold and use, often functional, sometimes sculptural. Tactility is key. Even my sculptures invite touch; I leave marks of production so nothing’s overly smooth.
How would you define artist? Do you see a difference between artist, artisan, and maker? People tend to label based on materials and practices, I think. If you paint, you’re an artist; if you sculpt, you’re a sculptor, ... I’m comfortable with artist, maker, artisan, but object maker feels most accurate for me. I use my hands to make things I come up with in my head. I envision things in my mind, that I bring to life with my hands. It’s all a bit blurry. How did you get into woodworking? My first experience with working with wood was in school at a young age , where I was enrolled in a woodworking course. Afterwards, I got my University degree in Interior Design and ended up working as a trend forecaster. A couple of years into my career, I felt I needed a change in my life, so I took a hands-on wood-carving and bushcraft workshop. I learn best by doing and seeing rather than reading and writing. The course was held in a forest just outside of London, where we learned how to carve a spoon manually. Being still in nature, doing repetitive hand movements, it felt meditative and satisfying, something I very much needed that time in my life. My brain switched off for the first time in a long time. I made something useful with my bare hands from a resource readily available, which was very satisfying. I was hooked immediately. That was about 13 years ago, and now many spoons later, I ‘m here in my studio still doing what I then learned and loved.
It started with that one spoon, which evolved into many others. How did your work evolve to what it is now?
I focused on spoons for a while, then got bored of repeating the same form. Transitioning to sculptural work was hard, I didn’t know how to cross from “craft” to sculpture. Sculptural brushes became a bridge: functional, but also for display. The idea is to keep beautiful, useful objects out in the open, not hidden under the sink or behind a closed door. It brings joy using beautiful objects rather then a plastic brush for example. I am now working on collections of smaller objects that sit together as sculptural pieces, looping forms combined and or framed. I’ve made a couple of new, smaller works and would love to scale them up to an extent that is possible by hand. It just takes time to make that change happen, finding the balance of making what customers want and what truly fulfils my heart.
You release your work seasonally. Is this related to the availability of the wood you are working with?
I used to make more pieces than I am doing lately. I have now decided to change up the process and prefer to spend a few months making a coherent collection and releasing it as a whole, it lets me focus on the creative side for a more extensive period, which I fell in love with initially and avoid having constant admin time in between carving. Most of the wood comes from a woodland in Kent. Much of it is storm-fallen and reclaimed timber. It’s typically processed late winter to early spring when we see most of the storms in the UK, and then slowly dried. With more stormy weather year-round in recent years, trees have been coming down all year.
Do different types of wood dictate what you will be making?
I usually select pieces by looking at grain, patterns, and cracks, then design around those features. Not any piece of wood will do; the all-around look and feel is super important for me to work with that specific block of wood. I’ll sketch templates and match the right piece. Some planks are so visually special that I hold onto them until I know what they should become. I want to do them justice. As I don’t use heavy machinery and I do almost everything by hand, I have to stick with somewhat softer woods to be able to carve them. Walnut is lovely. Pale woods, like the ones I use for forks, carve easily. Visually, I love patterned wood, especially spalted pieces of wood. The lines and patterns are formed by a natural process: when a fallen tree sits on the forest floor for months, fungi, bugs, and other living organisms colonise it, leaving black lines or cool patterns in the wood, becoming part of it. The wood is then kiln-dried to stop the decay and stabilise it. You must be careful when sanding, but once sealed/stabilised, it’s safe.
Have you ever sold a piece and regretted it?
All the time! There are a couple of sculptural pieces sitting around that I haven’t been able to part with, like this big brush that’s playful and totally unnecessary in the best way possible
Is it an intentional choice, making playful objects?
Yes, it’s a big part of why I do, what I do. I ‘ve been playing with the idea of making a collection called ‘play with food’, consisting of different pieces of tableware that playfully sit together, making it a joyful experience of using them during lunch or dinner parties when enjoying time together with friends and family around the table. It’s an extra experience besides enjoying delicious food. Someone once called my work “naive”. I was offended at first, then realised they were right, it’s childlike in an intentional playful way. I love touching and feeling textures out of curiosity. I’m curious by nature, and that’s how I tend to investigate new things, which you could call childlike or naïve.
Are any of your pieces used in restaurants?
I’m pretty specific about which commissions to work on and which ones don’t feel right. It really depends on the brief, budget, and fit, I won’t say yes to anything immediately. Restaurant pieces must be durable and maintainable, and not items that will only be used once and then done. A few restaurants in London already use my pieces. I’ve also collaborated with chefs on specific ideas in the past. It’s great when someone has a clear purpose and we can bring it to life together. One of my favourite projects was creating tableware for a 40-person champagne dinner in Paris, for which I designed and crafted the tableware. Everything was centred around champagne, and the wood I used was all sourced from a 2020 harvest and a storm-fallen tree on the chateau's premises.
Is everything entirely handmade that comes out of your workshop?
Almost everything is done by hand yes. I have a big saw and a couple of sanders, but I prefer the quiet, hand-based work myself. I had a finger injury from using the machines last year. It’s fine now, but the machines appeal to me even less. Working by hand keeps me close to the material, I need to be able to feel the textures. My preferred tool to work with is this Swedish wood-carving knife, it‘s just the right blade length and width for my work. It’s been with me for a long time, and I won’t be parting with it soon. Occasionally, people help with one or two days of prep and finishing tasks each month, such as cutting and sanding, processing timber, cutting blanks, and other preparatory work. So I can focus on the things I love to do the most, so I will do all designing and carving and final finishing myself. I don’t want to cheat people. If they buy something from me, I want people to know it is coming from my hands.
Are there any skills you’d like to develop in the future?
I used to draw and paint more; I would love to return to that and actively spend more time doing it. I recently made some figurative sculptures, a scary but exciting process. I really had to step out of my comfort zone to get those made. I’d also like to explore metalwork and mixed materials, probably through collaborations and working with skilled people in that field, whether learning something from scratch again, whenever the time is right, combining strengths rather than struggling on my own and never getting something good out of it. For now, my main focus is still on what I’m doing now, as I know where my strengths are.
What is your definition of success?
Time. Freedom to move slowly, choose my own rhythm, and not live by an alarm or schedule dictated by someone else. For example, I aim for four to five hours of solid making in the studio days, but you will not find me here every day. I like slow mornings and avoid rush-hour London when I can.
Where can people see and buy your work?
I just released my new collection online and for the moment, my website will be the only place I am selling my work.
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