Derek Welsh Collection is a minimal furniture collection created by London-based designer Derek Welsh for Phantom Hands. In February 2020, Welsh traveled to Bangalore, India to begin a collaboration with Phantom Hands. Over the last 12 months, he has designed and prototyped three products that will all launch this year. The collection celebrates simplicity and traditional joinery techniques that emphasize the handmade. The ongoing series of handcrafted objects consists of a stool, shelving and a chair.

For the stool, the traditional joinery techniques reference the historical past and emphasize the handmade with a modern playful design. The stool uses simple and strong cylindrical tenons that are finely crafted and fixed together with wooded wedges. The shelving unit design is based on the grid pattern taken from the workshop doors at Phantom Hands. The minimal vertical and horizontal parts use traditional hand skills and hidden joinery methods to join the timber together and use no mechanical fixings.

Continuing the methods used to make the stool the chair uses the same traditional jointing techniques with finely crafted elements in construction. The three leg design gives a good stable footing on uneven floors. This is the first all solid wood construction chair for PH. Visit Phantom Hands to see the collection and read an essay : Making the Collection – A Look Behind the Scene One of each untitled original prototypes made in oak by Derek Welsh will be show and for sale in September at London Design Festival.

Photography in collaboration with Reuben Paris