Making a marque – Wooden garden benches with a difference

I love some honest to god crafting. As much as I try and deny it, I am a hippy at heart and have always fancied holing up in a yurt somewhere and whittling. However whittling sounds like frippery when describing the garden benches found at Bench Marque. I think there is something to be said for reclaiming materials from the land to create beautiful garden benches, however it can often prove uncomfortable to sit on for long periods of time. Not so in this case.

Jona Cleaver founder of Bench Marque has a background in tree surgery and forestry work. He ditched that in favour of exploring his artistic tendencies to produce stunning garden benches made predominately from English oak. From sculptures to furniture he uses a chain saw to create pieces which have a rough and ready appeal yet speak a language of elegance, detail and grace.  The benches are of particular interested to me as they are designed for maximum comfort. Amazingly they also seem to be flat packed (well kinda) in the sense they come in 4 parts to be assembled on site. Yet Ikea they are not. The benches would be perfect at the turn of a path as a resting point or positioned to take in a particular vista – they would be ideal for most gardens.