Grenson

For London Craft Week, Otzi collaborated with Grenson to design and handcraft a reinterpretation of the classic workshop stool.

Otis took the typically curved metal form of the stool and translated into Otzi’s design aesthetic, blending both modern and traditional woodworking and joinery with highly skilled leatherwork. Parts of the stool are steam-bent in the traditional way, whilst others have been both joined.

Tim Little, the director of Grenson, went through their archive to stamp the leather stool tops with a variety of medallions, these are the brogue’s signature pattern detail from both classic country and formal footwear. Historically people were able to identify the shoes maker by the medallion pattern and shape as each company had their own distinct version.

In both the Grenson factory in the Otzi workshop the sewing and skiving machines are all paired with a machinist’s stool; a fundamental piece of almost any workshop and has been staple for most types of seated manufacturing processes. They are therefore pieces of furniture that are subtly involved in the making of almost all products.

Most industrial stools use either bent steel rod or pressed sheet metal to create light yet strong stools that are versatile and easy to manoeuvre. They tend to have a lead screw swivel mechanism that allows for height adjustment for each user and also for movement when operating machinery, which is what was incorporated into the Otzi design.