In the ongoing quest to dovetail sustainable style with carefully sourced materials, it is refreshing when a designer makes it easy to fall in love with and feel good about soulful green design. Add to this, lyrical lines and soft contours that envelope and rock your world, and you have the perfect home furnishings solution. Northumberland designer Jolyon Yates has mastered the art of design poetics and visual lullabyes with his latest Series 3 ODEChair and Stingray Stools. Exquisitely handcrafted from renewable wood that the artist lovingly selects, these are elegant design pieces meant to last for generations, in an ode to form and function.

The latest Series 3 ODEChair and Stools by Jolyon Yates include a sleek, haute-craft lineup of the Savannah Rocker III, Ocean Rocker III, Leaf Stool III and Stingray Stools in an assortment of vivid colors. Yates uses renewable birch (sourced from Scandinavia) for his creations as well as tulipwood and ash. He also opts for a low-impact PVA glue and a recipe of two-part acrylic lacquer, which he hopes to improve upon in terms of eco-friendliness but also feels adds to the long life of his collectible pieces. Smooth in finish, these are very durable, one-of-a-kind artisanal designs meant to last for generations – a message that Yates, as a craftsman, feels rather passionately about.

“The biggest contribution I can make to being environmentally-friendly is in carefully thought out design. I truly hope my chairs will be around longer than others, as longevity is surely good for the environment.”

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Other conscious decisions that the designer implements in his Northumberland workshop is the recycling of wood cut-offs as pictured in these super sleek bookend forms. Yates also co-shares his design workshop in order to help reduce waste collections, machine maintenance, and lighting overhead.

For anyone in the UK this summer, Series 3 ODEChair by Jolyon Yates will be on view at The Biscuit Factory until August 31, 2009. Given that all of Yates’ designs are handmade, there is a 6-8 week lead time on orders placed with the Northumberland workshop.

+ Jolyon Yates

+ ODEChair and Stools