The centrepiece of this Shaker-style love bench is the beautiful slab of spalted beech that forms the seat, harvested barely a mile from where I live. Spalting describes the colouration and patterning created by the ingress of fungi into a tree. Left too long and it will result in full-scale rot; caught at just the right time and properly seasoned, the spalting imbues the timber with some remarkable character. This piece is particularly spectacular and entirely unique.

The other components of the bench are made of ash and finished with traditional black-over-red milk paint and oil. The long comb topping off the back spindles is made from a single piece of ash, steam bent to a comfortable curve.