Tooth and Chisel: An Exploration in Wood at Knepp
This summer, Chintz & Wood is heading to Knepp for Tooth and Chisel: An Exploration in Wood, a new exhibition by Sussex-based woodturner Jubal Prevatte.
Created as part of Sussex Craft Week, the exhibition brings together a collection of vessels and sculptural forms shaped by time spent at Knepp and by the quiet, persistent work of the beavers within its rewilded landscape.
Jubal’s work has always begun with the material itself. Rather than imposing a predetermined shape on a piece of timber, he works responsively, following the grain, markings and internal structure of the wood. At Knepp, this approach found a natural connection with the principles of rewilding, where landscapes are given the freedom to develop through natural processes rather than being tightly controlled.
Working with the marks of beavers
All the timber used in the exhibition has come from the Knepp Estate. Some pieces retain the original tooth marks left by beavers, while others have been turned from ash removed because of disease.
The beavers’ gnawing is not treated as damage to be cut away or concealed. Instead, it becomes part of the finished work: evidence of another maker and of the landscape from which the material came.
The exhibition’s title reflects this meeting of human tools and animal instinct. Both tooth and chisel remove material, leaving behind a record of movement, pressure and intention. Jubal explored this relationship through several different approaches, from retaining gnawed surfaces to carving and turning forms that respond to the beavers’ own mark-making.
Forms allowed to find their own balance
Many of the vessels in the collection have no fixed base. Rather than being designed to sit in one prescribed position, they settle into their own balance, shifting slightly according to their weight and shape.
Their forms are guided by the wood from the inside out. Knots, splits, grain and areas of decay are not simply obstacles to work around; they help determine what each piece becomes.
The result is a collection that feels both deliberate and unsettled. The objects carry the traces of the trees, the beavers and the hand of the maker, without one story completely overriding the others.
As Jubal explains:
“I’ve dismissed the idea of mastering my craft or the material, instead seeking to allow the wood and its stories to be the master of me.”
Chintz & Wood at Knepp
Alongside Jubal’s exhibition, we will also be bringing a small collection of Chintz & Wood lamps and cushions to the Knepp Wilding Shop.
These include naturally dyed textiles made using materials gathered from the estate, including acorns from Knepp. The pieces continue the exhibition’s wider conversation about landscape, materials and making: using what is already present and allowing its origins to remain visible in the finished object.
Tooth and Chisel: An Exploration in Wood opens at the Knepp Wilding Shop on Saturday 20 June and will continue through Sussex Craft Week and into July.