Furniture maker Mike Newins (they/him) of design studio Make Nice primarily works with wood; that is, until they discovered stone-carving and fell in love with the qualities of limestone. “I love limestone for the way it is cool colored, severe, and visually heavy while also conveying buttery warmth – it has an inviting texture that reminds one of its origin in nature,” they share.
Newins hails from southern Indiana, a region that produced the limestone used for the Empire State Building and the Pentagon, and found a nearby breakage yard of a cut mill to select his materials. From there, he chips away at the stone with a couple of hand tools and without any formal planning. His mallet and chisel begin to reveal a gestural form underneath the block of limestone. The result is a series of furniture and unique objects. Some pieces look like both! Newins even paid homage to their previous material of choice and added wooden tabletops to limestone bases to create a sculptural side table.
To learn more about Mike Newins, visit Make Nice.
Source: design-milk