Tim Stead

Tim Stead (March 195221 April 2000) was a British sculptor and furniture maker who worked primarily in wood.

Early life and education

Tim Stead was born in 1952 and brought up near Helsby one of four brothers, in rural Cheshire. He was educated at Heronwater Prep School [now Coed Coch] and The Leys School, Cambridge. He attended art-school at Nottingham Trent University, School of Art and Design and undertook a post-diploma course at Glasgow School of Art.

After living in Glasgow for a period, he moved to Harestanes in the Scottish Borders and then to Blainslie near Lauder which was his home until his death in April 2000. Stead's house The Steading was also home to his wife, Maggy, and their children Sam and Emma.

Work

Sculpture

Stead was a sculptor before he was a furniture maker.

Sculpturally, Stead's work did not appear to derive from any particular art historical tradition although the ideas of Brancusi, Beuys and Hundertwasser, amongst others, were central to his vision. Early on, he rejected Conceptualism, particularly in the way it was practiced at Trent Polytechnic in Nottingham, where he completed the early part of his training. An early work, 'Burnt Tower with Creaking Pendulum’ contains most of his essential vocabulary, later expanded and refined. The piece shows items of worn driftwood bound together with rope, spectacularly off centre and asymmetrical.

Furniture

Stead's work as a furniture maker could not be separated from his ideas as a sculptor. Stead had begun exploiting the waney edge of the timber before learning of the work of George Nakashima who wrote The Soul of a Tree, a book highly respected by Stead as expressing much of his own feelings and beliefs. ) – all written between 1998 and 1999– deal in part with Stead's chosen sculptural medium:wood.

Notable Commissions

Cafe Gandolfi

At Glasgow School of Art while studying for his post-graduate diploma, Stead met lain Mackenzie who was then working in the photography department. After leasing the derelict Old Cheesemarket offices in the then run-down Merchant City area. Mackenzie asked Stead to build and install all the components necessary for a complete refurbishment – chairs, tables, an eight-seater bench and a bar.

The Millenium Clock

Towards the end of the twentieth century, Tim and a group of artists and makers: Eduard Bersudsky (of Sharmanka Kinetic Gallery), Annica Sandström and Jurgen Tübbecke made a proposal to the National Museum of Scotland to make a marker and memorial for the year 2000, a great Millenium Clock.

Exhibitions

Layers

The work in the touring exhibition 'Layers' represented a fundamental departure for Stead in a number of respects. This was the first exhibition composed exclusively of non-functional, sculptural pieces- and in a gallery setting.

All the 'Layers' pieces carried an invitation – 'Please Touch'.

The Steading

Stead filled his own home, The Steading, near Lauder, with hand-made furniture and fittings which he crafted from locally sourced native hardwood. These include a timber fireplace, a four-poster bed, a cradle, toilet seats and light switches. According to Nichola Fletcher, who chairs the Tim Stead Trust, the house's interior rivals that of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Willow Tearooms. The trust was formed in 2015 to raise money to buy the house from Stead's widow. The purchase was completed in 2021 and the house is now open to the public for guided tours.

Since 2020 the house, along with an adjacent sawmill and workshop, has been protected by Historic Environment Scotland as a Category A listed building.