Our workshop is located in eastern China in Zhejiang province. This region contains one of the largest bamboo plantations. The Maison wasabi team has a strong link with China as a majority of the team live or have lived there. It was important to have consistency between the end product and the material used; this is why China was the ideal country so that we could benefit from unique expertise in bamboo.

Most of our furniture is made from solid bamboo. This material is renewable as it takes around 2 years to grow and does not require any fertiliser or pesticide. To exploit the bamboo, we use the glue-laminate technique. The trunk of the bamboo is sawn into strips, which are then planed, flattened then fumigated before finally being dried. To finish, they are glued at very high pressure to make panels.

Once the bamboo panels have been made, we get to the carpentry stage when the material is cut out, perforated, grooved and bent. Some of these stages are done with numerically-controlled machines; others are done manually. Each piece is then sanded; this is the most delicate stage to ensure a high-quality piece of furniture with a perfect finish. Then the furniture goes through the paint room 5 times to get a very smooth effect. Most of the sanding is done manually as we take great care with the detail and quality of our furniture. To give an example, an Anka chair requires 8 hours of sanding.

We use exclusively species of wood certified under the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) system. This system is run by an independent not-for-profit non-governmental organisation. The aim of the FSC system is to promote a responsible and sustainable way of managing forests using a set of mandatory forestry management principles and criteria. It is a guarantee of responsible consumption of forestry products. For more information, you can visit its website.