The 50p Coasters

At the other end of the scale from a bar or a table, there's the small, personal work — and it's some of our favourite. A collector came to us with an unusual ask: a set of coasters, each one burned by hand to copy the design of a commemorative 50p coin. Those little pictures people hunt through their change for.

Each coaster started as a turned wood round. From there it's pyrography, freehand — drawing with a hot point, burning the design into the surface line by line. There's no printing and no shortcut; you work slowly, and the tone comes from how long the tip rests and how heavy the hand. Copying a coin means holding to fine detail on a small round, and if you slip there's no undo. It's patient work, and it's exactly the sort of thing that proves what "personalised" can really mean — not a name stuck on, but a picture made by hand for one person.

Not a name stuck on — a picture burned in by hand, for one person.

Alongside the commissioned pieces, we cut plenty of plain coaster rounds and boards too, often from offcuts and one-off bits of timber that are too nice to waste. Turned, sanded and finished in a food-safe oil, they're ready for the table as they are — a blank, if you like, waiting for whatever design someone dreams up next.

If you've a set of designs in your head you'd like burned into wood, that's very much the sort of thing we enjoy.