A Lifelong Collector

I have been designing furniture for over ten years, but I am a life long collector. My enduring love of gathering, arranging and rearranging objects has perhaps been the biggest influence on my work in design. And I am not talking about expensive trophies. Sure, I love a lump of Lalique or an exquisite slither of silverwork. But for me it starts and ends with treasure foraged from a walk in the woods, or across the beach. As kids my sister and I didn't have a huge amount in the way of toys, instead we were encouraged to collect natural things when out birdwatching with Dad. One day it might be sticks and so back to the house we would come with a bundle of sticks, tie them up, make something with them. Another day pebbles from the beach. See how many different piles you can curate. It was this idea that you collect it, and then you do something with it. The ritual of collecting and obsessing over natural objects, rearranging and trying to make sense of the world through them… it’s an enduring influence on my practice. Over the years lots has been given away, lost or sold, but the things that stay are those tiny treasures gathered from adventures in nature.

The Toogood Studio: A Magpie’s Nest of Ideas

At the centre of the Toogood studio is our materials library. A glittering magpie’s nest of glass, metals, ceramics, textiles… that is often the starting point of a new project. I’ll pull pieces from this library and see how they talk to each other. I like the fact that if I take a Roly Poly chair and I do it in plastic, bronze glass, aluminium, or gold leaf, every time it has a completely different connotation. Materials are a playground. Assembling, collaging, clashing them. Creating coats out of cling film or thinking up a collection that's entirely made of mud… this is the real fun part of the process for me. I strive to keep the wide-eyed energy I had as a child combing through my beach finds or forest foraging. A huge part of my work has been focused on creating “wow” out of ubiquitous, simple, basic materials. I can trace each maquette back to the conkers and feathers collected in childhood.

Nature as Inspiration

These talismans of nature also connect me to the landscape. I feel more comfortable outside than in and the elemental energy of a big sky and a crooked horizon fuel my work. Palette. Materials. Shape. Scale. Surface. There always must be a rawness in any piece of Toogood: the memory and influence of the landscape. It’s often drawn from my imagination. It might be Constantine Bay in Cornwall, a stretch of coast that my family and I have strong emotional ties. Dirtied colours, craggy rocks and wild winds that take you from the side. Or it might be a place I’ve never travelled to, other than in books and dreams.

Developing a Signature Style

I have worked hard to create a vocabulary of shape that is my own. I model to find the forms. I make maquettes over and over again until suddenly a shape starts to appear that feels right. I line them up on shelves – just like the rows of animal bones and acorns gathered since childhood. I work in the vernacular, humble materials of the studio. Tape. Cardboard. Blu-Tack. Tinfoil. Whether it's the Roly-Poly Chair made out of masking tape or a miniature wire table that will eventually be blown up in bronze. It's in the maquettes, the modelmaking, that I have really found and focused my process. The forms are autobiographical, I cannot help it. Sometimes I don’t quite realise how personal they are until I’m looking back. I started with the Spade Chair: quite rural and folky. Then I cut all of my hair off and came back with a collection of steel, security mesh, and bronze. In that moment I felt compelled to assert myself, rejecting the decorative arts. Then I had children and the Roly-Poly arrived. Round, plump, fuller, softer.

With each line I draw, or fingerprint I leave in clay … this all bubbles under the surface. I now understand that each collected conker and every failed clay maquette has quietly worked to strengthen my signature. For a long time, I thought and felt like I needed to sacrifice part of myself to be part of the design world. Call that part what you like – the anima, the yin, the feminine… That soulful part often so often framed as emotional. Irrational. Disorganised. Disorderly. Words that I’d argue are still taboo in the design industry. In my career I’ve often felt like an outsider and so to conform and to achieve success I used to reject the messy, emotional, touchy-feely stuff. Now I realise it’s the most important part of my practice. I simply cannot not be… myself. Each year my signature and the mark I make becomes indelible as I allow my process to become more and more emotional and personal. I strive to celebrate design that unites creative play and hand-made craft.

Living With Design

I believe good design – that is personal design full of emotional intelligence - can help us find true meaning in the objects that we choose to surround ourselves with. I hate the word – but my own collection is truly eclectic. Creamware rubs handles with the foraged treasures of my childhood. A beautifully faded plastic Nesso lamp – the colour of condensed milk, sits atop one of my own bog oak tables. I love to mix modern with old with very old. I have curated a motley bunch of goodies, including works by designers featured in the drool-inducing catalogue for Dreweatts' approaching Modern Design & Decorative Art sale. Some of these are pieces I live with myself. Some I long for. Collecting and living with design is not about status – it is your personal life story. Find what sets you alight and chase it.

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Auction Details

Auction: 
Wednesday 15 October 2025, 10.30am BST
Dreweatts, Donnington Priory, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 2JE

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Viewing:
Viewing in London (highlights):

• Tuesday 30 September: 10am-4pm
• Wednesday 1 October: 10am-4pm
• Thursday 2 October: 10am-4pm

Viewing in Newbury (full sale):

• Friday 10 October: 10am-4pm (appointment only)
• Sunday 12 October: 10am-3pm
• Monday 13 October: 10am-4pm
• Tuesday 14 October: 10am-4pm
• Wednesday 15 October: 9am-12 noon

Further Information:
General enquiries: + 44 (0) 1635 553 553 | design@dreweatts.com
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