Vernacular furniture – and the emotional durability and relationship shared between owner and chair has inspired Thomas Veryard’s carbon-sequestering Agricultural Chair.

The chair embodies physical and emotional durability: crafted gouge marks on the rear uprights emphasis the sensory relationship with its owner – as they come into contact with the chair again and again over time, a suggestion of a same journey handed down to future generations. A small off-cut spindle found between both side stretchers represents re-purposed leftover coppiced timber, one of which is painted with a flax seed oil-based bio-char paint created from flax cord, linen and timber scraps, left over from the chair’s construction. Renewable heat energy produced from the bio-char stove is then used to heat the water to steam bend the coppiced timber components. Each of the three backrest plates are made from a flax linen bio-resin composite, branded with the total carbon storage of the chair – ‘6704g’.

Lastly, The Agricultural Chair is finished with pure and natural soap flakes, a branded bag of which is supplied to buyers for future care and maintenance. The Danish soap finish requires refinishing every 2-3 years, encouraging owners to actively care for their product. This encouragement of nurture again hopes to strengthen the

Mimicking cyclical, natural processes, Veryard’s practice is heavily influenced by organic materials and is inspired by vernacular furniture and the tools used to conceive them, the stories they hold and the often-unsung craftsperson behind the piece.

During the course of his degree Veryard shadowed one of the few remaining surfboard shapers – Jools Mathews – to witness his rare craft first-hand. He also undertook an internship at London-based Naturebytes, working on the development of a commercial camera operated birdbox aimed at encouraging the conservation and awareness of urban wildlife. He then worked as a studio-assistant to Chinese artist Qin Feng, working in the ancient water town of Zhujiajiao and central Shanghai, also contributing to the development of a new website for the Beijing Museum of Contemporary Arts which Qin Feng played part in founding. Veryard has recently secured a furniture maker role at Matthew Cox Furniture.