‘In Clover’ was a collaborative piece; designed by renowned Australian Architect, John Wardle, and crafted by Bryan Cush of Sawdust Bureau. This dining table was realised for 'Relatively Useful’, an exhibition at the Heide Musuem of Modern Art which showcased several of John's designs for 2022 Melbourne Design Week. The Leatherwood timber used to construct the frame and Tasmanian Oak for the top was all reclaimed from the bottom of a Tasmanian lake.  The piece features clover-shaped legs which penetrate through the top and a sliding tray which glides down the centre of the split tabletop.

 

Designer’s statement

‘I sketched a myriad of shapes for legs that when extruded through the table top could form some kind of emblem. A four-leaf clover in its perfect geometry of intertwined radiuses suggests the good fortune of sharing a table and bountiful sociability. Tasmanian Leatherwood can no longer be harvested due to it’s importance for Tasmania’s apiarists. It is only these trees harvested from the bottom of Lake Pieman that allows us this opportunity.’

John Wardle

 

Maker’s statement

‘When I first viewed John’s concept sketches I focused on exploring the technicalities involved in the piece; how to deal with the seasonal movement of timber, how to achieve such pronounced cantilevers, how to interlock the subtle 5-degree, inward tapers of the frame and finally the challenge of creating the clover-shaped legs. The complex clover profile required us to break up each clover leg into 4 separate quadrants with the connection mortises pre-cut to attach into the frame. The quadrants were then CNC machined by the incredible team at LikeButter and they were assembled them into the clover form. Other challenges involved in this piece were an Australian summer heatwave causing havoc with the numerous laminations and the pressure of working with such a rare species of timber - eliminating any margin for error.’

Bryan Cush, Sawdust Bureau