The latest from Snelling Studio is a minimal take on the abstract shapes of our native forest; familiar, beguiling, and perfectly distilled.
Designer Bec Snelling captures something intrinsically graceful in her new offering, named The Hour Collection. It encapsulates memories of Bec’s rural childhood in Northland, where she grew up watching her grandfather, a farmer and wood-turner with a fondness for kauri, at work; and, more recently, of the misty morning walks and liminal dusk of a forest-covered maunga near her current home.
In these quiet times spent outdoors, Bec considered the life cycle of each tree and how it influences the patterns and colours of the timber, recalling stories of her youth such as “When the moon shines on the fern, use it to guide you home” — an aphorism from her father.
“I admire the harmonious symmetry of the fern; it reminds me of the golden ratio used by architects and artists to conjure up pleasing designs,” Bec says.
Pictured here are objects from the first of two releases that will make up The Hour Collection, a family of lighting inspired by our native forests, and a mirror series dedicated to Bec’s late mother, Briar.
Each is an articulation of ideas around the human relationship with time, playing masterfully with proportion, finishes, tones, and high and low-tech processes — creating a modern yet handcrafted appeal.
The Hour Agathis Floor Lamp (top) takes inspiration from the kauri; tall, strong, and graceful, it is crafted with lathe-turned timber and hand-finished metal, and demurely covered with a hand-dyed, raw silk diffuser.
The Hour Rho Wall Light takes cues from the nīkau palm, and is available in a single or twin version.
“I found it humorous that the female flowers of the nīkau are singular and the male are pairs — hence the single and double lamps,” Bec comments.
The Hour Briar Floor Mirror takes its bead-like woodturned form from the Agathis Floor Lamp, scaled down to delicate proportions.
“In a way, all the designs hark back to my family’s whakapapa in Kaipara, an area with rich history relating to the kauri,” Bec explains. “The circular growth pattern of the timber connects us to the circle of life … this collection has revived my familiarity with stories and memories from my family’s past; it is a nostalgic ode to all the hours we have shared and a hope for many more.”
