UC158

Some sketches insist on generous volumes — forms that occupy space with confidence, that don't apologise for being large. The problem is always the same: a big form in solid wood becomes something you move once and regret.

Iñigo Calleja's answer was to invent a material. Amberlite — a mortar of crushed cardboard and recycled wood shavings applied by hand over a lightweight core. Once polished, the shavings and fragments become visible: organic, precise, quietly beautiful in the way that only materials with a previous life can be.

Two small coffee tables, barely 60cm long, designed for sitting close to the ground. A tea room, a slow afternoon, a conversation that isn't in a hurry. The Amberlite surfaces carry the playfulness of the original drawings. The legs — turned from aged Spanish walnut, robustly cylindrical — keep them honest.