Jack Havelock Bailey

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Abstract aesthetic 2025

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Havelock Studio was established in 2015 by Jack Havelock Bailey.

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Bailey is an artist, designer and maker exploring sculptural forms through the medium of timber sourced from family owned woodland in Kent. Woodturning is at the heart of his practice, and through this, aims to create objects of intrigue and delight.

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Bailey was first inspired to try woodturning at the age of fourteen, intrigued as to how he could use the material around him in the woodland where he grew up. Woodturning had been a mainstay in his life over the 16 years leading up to the 2020 lockdown but this event became a catalyst to really dive into this practise. He became focused on creating one off unique objects, choosing only the highest quality material to work with and has continued on this path of exploration to the present day.

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Rarely is a predetermined design imposed onto a piece of wood, Bailey is inspired and guided by the material itself to create a form through a conversation. This starts when cutting into a log, seeing what is inside, and asking what is the best thing that could be made, which both does the wood justice and is a beautiful form in and of itself. The answer varies all the time and therein comes his ever expanding catalogue of shapes which show off the different beautiful intricacies of the wood.

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In this exhibition Bailey is using Ash and Beech sourced from storm fallen or dangerous trees that have required felling within the woodland where he works. ‘Ash Dieback’ has been an unfortunate problem which has massively effected these woods and as such there is a particular glut of this material. It has however provided some exceptional timber which he has personally harvested, a process he takes great pride in. Having grown up around these trees it is not hard to find the motivation to give them a second life. 

Ash is Bailey’s primary choice for Yakisugi projects, this is where he burns the surface with a blowtorch and through a long and labour filled process, scrubs the piece to remove loose char and to burnish it. It’s a tricky and often heartbreaking task as many objects which have already seen significant time investment can crack or warp ruining the desired vision for the work. This however makes the pieces that do survive all the more special.

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Beech is another favourite of his. It’s a species which ‘spalts’ incredibly well; essentially a process by which fungi inhabit the wood, staining as they go. These marks or ‘zone lines’ are caused by many fungi competing for territory and putting up barriers ensuring they can feed on the wood. Bailey has become rather obsessed with this process over the last 10 years and will deliberately induce the spalting in the wood, harvesting it on a cycle of every 3-4 years. The art here is catching it just at the right time, left too long and the wood will be rotten and unusable, cut it too soon and there won’t be many patterns. There really is a Goldilocks zone which can be very tricky to come by.

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Click images for details and if you are interested in any of Jack Havelock Bailey's work please enquire below.​​​​​​​