Hilla Shamia’s work is among the most arresting marriages of wood and metal I’ve seen.

Her pieces are made using a casting process Shamia developed while working toward a bachelor’s degree in industrial design at the Holon Institute of Technology in Holon, Israel. (She now has her own studio.) She calls it Wood Casting, and has trademarked the process.

Shamia uses whole trunks of mostly local trees; they are cut lengthwise, then inserted into a mold. The mold defines the frame and legs of the piece, the wood forms the top. But what really makes these pieces sing (for me, at least), is the layer of charcoal formed between the wood and metal during the process.

“The merging outlines of the materials provide evidence of the leaking aluminum and the carbonization of the wood, maintaining a sense of flow even when the two materials are forever frozen,” states Shamia’s press materials.

“Like in nature, each final product is unique. No two pieces of Wood Casting are
identical, due to the production process, in which the mold is broken down. The
incompleteness and randomness give the product its aesthetic value. As in nature, the
processes are exposed, but still the results are surprising, each time a new.”

You can see more images of her work below, and at her web site, hillashamia.com.

— Megan Fitzpatrick

p.s. I first saw Hilla Shamia’s work thanks to thiscollosal.com, on which you might want to check out this post on Mike Warren’s wood and photoluminescent resin tables. Also very cool.