Last year, when Kelly Wearstler released her debut tabletop collection with Serax, it gave us pause. Design enthusiasts may be most familiar with her energetic interiors that capture California magic and become Instagram fever dreams, but the robust series of glassware, flatware, and servingware revealed the interior designer excels in the art of subtlety, too. The same applies to her newly released Echo Collection, a succinct group of wooden furnishings inspired by the vast California landscape and the natural repetitions it contains. “It remains a core source of inspiration,” she told Surface, particularly being moved by the “ripples from a raindrop, the bluffs of a Malibu shoreline, and the echoing sound of calls into a mountainside.”
Each piece seemingly freezes capillary waves in motion, whether on the base of a stone-topped table, the surface of an elongated bench, or a totemic sculpture. They originated as pencil drawings, but to bring the pieces to life, seasoned timber artisans hand-carve and remove the rippling layers on carefully selected pieces of wood in Wearstler’s workshop near Downtown Los Angeles. “We have a longtime artisan partner who works exclusively in wood that we worked with to develop these pieces,” Wearstler says, noting how they blend raw, organic forms with Brutalist gestures. “He was able to bring our pencil drawings to life in such a natural and cool way.” Each is offered in natural Douglas Fir, white gesso, and ebonized Douglas Fir.
