- Established
- 2022
- Founders
- Dan Burke Thomson and Ravi Bains
- Based in
- Nancegollan, Cornwall
- Craft
- Contemporary marquetry
The Local’s perspective
A different starting point
A small blue rectangle interrupts a field of fine brown lines. Look closer at a Stratum surface and the pattern becomes a collection of smaller decisions: the direction of the grain, the meeting of light and dark, the placement of colour. Those decisions begin with material that another business or maker no longer needs.
At Nancegollan, near Helston, Dan Burke Thomson and Ravi Bains turn that starting point into surfaces for objects, furniture and interiors. Their work gives marquetry—a craft of assembling material into decorative patterns—a contemporary vocabulary.
The story
From Pendeen to a shared workshop
The idea for Stratum took shape during a conversation on the cliffs at Pendeen in 2020. The business launched in late 2022. Today, the connection between those two ways of working is visible in the result: practical material handling and an eye for composition, brought together in the same surface.
The people
Dan and Ravi
Dan and Ravi met in Cornwall in 2012, bringing different experience to what would eventually become a shared business. Dan’s background included expedition leadership and carpentry; Ravi’s encompassed arts education and design.
Inside the making
The pattern starts with what is available
Stratum gathers timber and plastic offcuts through its waste-material rescue service and relationships with other businesses and makers. In the workshop, timber is organised by tone and plastic by colour before the patterned blocks are built.
This is not simply a familiar design reproduced in a different material. The founders describe designing their signature patterns around the offcuts available to them. Repetition gives each surface its rhythm; differences in grain and colour keep it from feeling uniform.
Production varies with the project. Stratum makes its current cabinet handles entirely in its own workshop, while Apply Works supports CNC machining on kitchens and other larger work.
Our recommendation
A small place to begin
Cabinet handles offer an approachable way into Stratum’s work. Made to order, they bring the patterned material to something touched and used every day, without requiring a whole piece of furniture or an interior commission.
For larger projects, the founders also offer a collaborative pattern-design route. The common thread is the surface itself: material and arrangement doing the decorative work.
A sense of place
Nancegollan, Cornwall
Stratum works from Nancegollan, near Helston. Contact the makers directly about projects or workshop enquiries; this profile does not imply walk-in access.
