IronMan celebrates Diplomat’s experiments with unconventional making processes and surface finishes. Inspired by traditional West African tribal furniture, it replaces millennia of ad-hoc wood carving with an equally ancient blend of hand carving and metal casting. The result is a uniquely expressive object capturing iron age technology.

Like it’s African forebears, IronMan is robust and functional despite its diminutive scale. The sitter has to adopt a crouching posture that, though very comfortable, is culturally unusual in the west and therefore demands a more conscious engagement with the product.

Each stool is hand carved from expanded polystyrene and then cast from CS cast Iron using a lost wax process at a foundry in East London. The casting is then hand cleaned, ground, burnished and waxed in Diplomat’s London studio.

This craft approach to production, delivers a series of unique pieces. The original pattern is destroyed in the casting and at each stage of the production there is also a layer of conscious distortion which becomes part of the final design.

Manufactured entirely in London from CS cast Iron, the range of 10 IronMen are entirely hand carved so each one is individual in appearance. The legs are deliberately left with a rough texture while the seating surface and top edge are finished to a high polish.

Prices available on request

Design by Ashley Hall & Matthew Kavanagh