by Will Cottrell | Mar 11, 2026 | Material Investigation, Writing
Understanding Form through Bamboo Maquettes Creating bamboo maquettes as a precursor to larger structures is a traditional process used by Balinese and Vietnamese bamboo carpenters. Following this traditional, I often use maquettes to study the designing and weight...
by Will Cottrell | Mar 11, 2026 | Material Investigation, Writing
Prototype Bamboo Furniture Bamboo is well known for its furniture and building potential. I wanted to explore how this was done, and since bamboo carpentry is quite distinct from its wood equivalents, the only way to do this was to build prototypes of my own. Each...
by Will Cottrell | Mar 11, 2026 | Material Investigation, Writing
Exploratory Bamboo Assemblies A constantly-evolving series of material experiments with bamboo assembly. The work ranges across structures, maquettes, furniture, and sculptural, exploring how bamboo can be shaped and assembled through both traditional and improvised...
by Will Cottrell | Mar 11, 2026 | Writing
Experimental Bamboo Joinery, Lashing and Weaving My work often involves experimenting with different bamboo connection and joinery techniques. My prevailing interest is what bamboo can do, so I often I embark on simple material investigations: cutting, carving,...
by Will Cottrell | Jan 21, 2026 | Material Investigation, Writing
Developing Idol forms through Offcuts Some of my work is based on death and what remains. It seems to me that we cannot not be our ancestors. Physiologically, we are composites of the dead—faces, bones, inherited gestures. Psychologically, they live on in us as well:...
by Will Cottrell | Jan 11, 2026 | Writing
Today is my two-hundred and fifteenth birthday. I traipse across my cave and bludgeon my foot on a stone. A rotten toenail tears away, and I threaten the emerging sun, with my stick. My stink nauseates me. Over the years I have come to smell like that moment, one...
