Every board starts as a plank of solid walnut. I go through them one at a time and set aside only the pieces with grain worth looking at. Most get put back.

Pigment goes in by eye, never by recipe. I have never once repeated a batch exactly — which is precisely why no two boards will ever match.

The design is built up by hand inside the mould, piece by piece, until it sits exactly where it should. The slowest, most stubborn part of the whole process.

Resin goes in, and then it waits. Days of nothing visibly happening, in a room nobody is allowed to walk through quickly. This is most of the six to nine weeks.

Sanded grit after grit until you cannot feel the seam between resin and wood, then oiled until the walnut goes dark. I pack it and write your name on the label myself.