Ayo – Resin and Wood Artist

Having spent most of his career working in marketing for large corporates, Ayo reached a point where he wanted to take back control and step away from the treadmill. 

He has always enjoyed working with wood and his pieces are a way of taking a passion for woodwork and turning it into more than just a hobby.

All of Ayo’s items are bespoke and of course, handmade. He specialises in making furniture, homeware and wall décor, which he describes as ‘functional art’.

Ayo’s Ethos

A project begins by sourcing timber that has interesting grain, colouration and good wood working properties. Only then does he design and craft a fitting piece  to bring out the qualities of the wood. Where other materials, such as resin, complement the design, he includes these modern materials to create a genuinely unique handcrafted contemporary piece of functional art.

Ayo uses hardwoods that have been sustainably grown in England and Scotland and sourced from a local Sussex based wood yards, such as oak, elm and ash. It is important to him to buy locally, and traditionally, the wood he uses would have found its way into biomass incinerators and commercial ovens – the burning of wood produces harmful C02. The C02 locked into his wooden furniture has a positive impact on the environment – every cubic meter he uses prevents 1 tonne of C02.

His passion for sustainability extends to the resin in his products. Unless you have studied chemistry – like Ayo did at university – though, the very thought of a conversation about polymers is likely to get you checking your social feed. But, in short to save your sanity, epoxy resin is made by mixing resin with a hardener which is sometimes called a ‘curing agent’ and the result is a liquid that turns into an inert hard solid free from harmful VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds), which you may be familiar with.

This resultant solid is called a polymer and this is the process and material he uses with wood to create his one-of-a-kind pieces of contemporary furniture and homewares.

Although technically a plastic, by incorporating resin into his furniture designs, Ayo is able to find new uses for wood that would traditionally have found their way to biomass incinerators, commercial ovens and in so doing, would have released the amount of harmful C02 into the environment.

His furniture and homeware products are designed to give a lifetime or more of enjoyment and use (rather than through away ‘single use’ items which clog up landfill sites).

Where he can, he tries to limit the amount of resin he uses. He often introduces it as an accent colour to complement a contemporary piece of furniture or homeware, or use it as a heat protective layer on his ottoman trays.

FEATURED PRODUCT – English Oak and Resin Device Stand