The Invisible Store of Happiness, photo by Petr Krejci

The Invisible Store of Happiness is a three-metre high ode to wood and craftsmanship. It has taken two of the UK’s brightest talents – furniture designer/maker Sebastian Cox and artist Laura Ellen Bacon – three months to craft the structure out of American hardwood, showcased for Clerkenwell Design Week (CDW) in the archway in front of the historic Museum of the Order of St John in London 19-21 May 2015.
This dramatic installation hand-crafted out of American maple and cherry, consists of a mighty steam bent frame that gives way to thinner, weave-able strips manipulated to twist and flow into a whirlpool of texture and shape.
The American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) has supported the project to allow experimentation with these timbers and to celebrate their potential.
For over 20 years the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) has been at the forefront of wood promotion in Europe, successfully building a distinctive and creative brand for U.S. hardwoods. AHEC’s support for creative design projects such as The Wish List for London Design Festival, FIVE at Clerkenwell Design Week 2014, and now the Invisible Store of Happiness, demonstrates the performance potential of these sustainable materials and provides valuable inspiration.

• The Invisible Store of Happiness, Laura Ellen Bacon and Sebastian Cox, photo by Petr Krejci and Jon Cardwell
• The Invisible Store of Happiness, Laura Ellen Bacon and Sebastian Cox, photo by Petr Krejci and Jon Cardwell
• The Invisible Store of Happiness, Laura Ellen Bacon and Sebastian Cox, photo by Petr Krejci and Jon Cardwell
• The Invisible Store of Happiness, Laura Ellen Bacon and Sebastian Cox, photo by Petr Krejci and Jon Cardwell
• The Invisible Store of Happiness, Laura Ellen Bacon and Sebastian Cox, photo by Petr Krejci and Jon Cardwell

CRAFTING THE INVISIBLE STORE OF HAPPINESS
Sebastian Cox conceived the project and led by his growing passion for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), took it to AHEC as a proposal. Cox is best known for making handmade furniture with sustainable materials from the UK’s woodlands, but his passion for the progressive research AHEC are conducting into LCA led him to Venables. He asked Laura Ellen Bacon, whose poetic willow sculptures he has always admired, to join him for the project.
The maple and cherry have been crafted into an elliptical-shape frame that showcases fine craftsmanship and impeccable cabinetry on a grand scale with huge arcs of steam bent cherry wood, hand jointed together in mostly glue-less draw-bore mortice and tenon joints.
Through complex machinery the components of this solid frame are effectively shredded into strips and made supple and weave-able from time spent soaking in the River Thames beside Sebastian’s Woolwich workshop. These strips were boldly manipulated by hand, flowing and twisting into the space to create a whirlpool of texture and shape, all held within its mighty external frame.

• The Invisible Store of Happiness, photo by Petr Krejci
• The Invisible Store of Happiness, photo by Petr Krejci
• The Invisible Store of Happiness, photo by Petr Krejci

ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS
American hardwood forests are sustainably managed. Furthermore, for several years now, AHEC has invested in environmental profiling in the form of environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of its projects through sustainability performance management experts, thinkstep (formerly PE International). The Invisible Store of Happiness has been environmentally profiled, using the latest LCA modelling techniques.
American hardwoods have a low impact on the environment at all stages of their life cycle right from the point of extraction. Forest management in the sector is not intensive, one outcome of the fact that most American hardwood forests are owned and managed by individuals, families, or small companies rather than large timber corporations. Forest holdings are relatively small, mostly under 10 hectares, limiting the size of harvesting operations.

www.americanhardwood.org
www.clerkenwelldesignweek.com
www.sebastiancox.co.uk
www.lauraellenbacon.com