Born and raised in Australia, Marcus Jacka came to the UK in 1996 for a research position at the University of York (he has a PhD in physics). As I admire the elegantly spare and beautifully crafted chairs, tables and lights that he makes in the studio and workshop of Non-Standard, on the edge of the North York Moors, I find it hard to believe that he has been a maker only for 10 years and is entirely self-taught. Such is his pull to craft, he says, ‘some days it doesn’t matter what I’m making, as long as I’m working with my hands’.
Marcus has learned his trade by looking. It was a book on the American woodworker Sam Maloof, given to him by his parents when he was 13, that set him on this path – with a detour for a career as a scientist.
He says making is the easy part; his practice is driven by aesthetics. ‘My work is foremost about the design – the beauty of the material is secondary,’ he explains. A new design begins with the thinking – ‘the almost obsessive thinking’ as he describes it – and so one begins to understand the connection between the maker and the scientist. Marcus likes making chairs because he works in small runs of, say, 50 at a time, which helps him with the process of understanding and finessing each of his designs. ‘I get great joy from the small incremental learning, working on a joint so that it is more reliable, or so it slots in more easily. It’s not about a big new idea, but millions of little things that go towards the pursuit of the perfect design.’
Each new piece starts as a model, before progressing to a prototype. While he rarely introduces new designs, Marcus loves working with interior designers to create variations on pieces. Jonathan Reed recently commissioned a set of Non-Standard’s ‘Ascend Carver’ chairs, which were painted rather than left as bare wood. ‘That was something I’d never have thought of doing,’ says Marcus.
The Non-Standard workshop and studio is located in the former Boltby water treatment works at the bottom of a steep valley. Marcus took on an empty shell, which he has subdivided into a large workshop and a smaller studio next door. Until recently, he worked alone, but now Lawrence Dowson has joined him at the studio. Lawrence was working as a chef before Covid hit, but, like Marcus, he has a natural talent for this craft. On the day I visit, he is working on a table for Lutyens Furniture & Lighting. Marcus has been making pieces for the company for some time now: ‘It is fascinating working from the original designs and looking into the mind of a great designer [Edwin Lutyens].’
In one corner of the workshop is a lathe. Marcus uses this to turn the shades for his pendant lights and also create bowls – two very different pieces that emerge from the same machine. The lights involve formal wood-turning to achieve the final cleanlined result, while the bowls are turned from freshly cut wood that distorts as it dries, revealing the history of the tree. Elsewhere, chair backs and the hoops that support the rush seats (woven by John Taylor in North Yorkshire) are steam-bent. The methods are traditional but the results are distinctly modern. There is a remarkable lightness and balance to Marcus’s pieces.
The thinking happens next door in the studio, which feels more like a living space than a workspace, and acts as a showcase for Non-Standard’s collection of designs. As well as catering for practical needs – there is a kitchen here – it is in many ways a Gesamtkunstwerk (a total work of art). Marcus extended the windows down to the floor and created sliding shutters that pull out to reveal linen panels embroidered with motifs of his work. A wonderfully light spiral staircase, made in English brown oak by Marcus, leads up to a floor above; several different chairs sit around an ‘Ox’ table, his first design; and an original Florence Knoll sofa has been re-covered in antique linen and camel wool from an Afghan shepherd’s coat, giving it a new lease of life. It is sympathetic to Knoll’s design, but very much in the spirit of Marcus’s work.
