ReCreativity is born of a passion for craftsmanship. James Doran-Webb, its founder, has spent a lifetime working with drifted and long dead wood, and over the past decade has become the World’s leading Animalier within this genre. Since his childhood days accompanying his parents on antiques buying trips, and through the intervening 45 years, James’ lifetime hobby has been crafting furniture and home accessories from recycled materials, making stunning one-offs for friends and family.

In 2024, James teamed up with Cebu Homecraft, a company with 35 years of manipulating natural materials, and formed ReCreativity with a view to recreating a selection of James’ work, utilising his small team of a dozen or so veteran craftsmen to bring these pieces to life.

The primary focus of ReCreativity is quality, and we have to be honest, recreating some of James’ more ambitious designs is difficult. Take for example the Molten Metal Console Table. James uses off-cuts from the decades-dead wood that has been picked over in the making of his animal sculptures. He then reduces the thickness and kiln dries the wood over the course of a 3 week period. The wood is then engineered to hog the underlying structure. Molten pewter is poured into the crevasses and gaps between the wood and the resulting top is then worked to a mirror finish using a 5 part process. This is the easy bit! Then the components are assembled onto 18mm thick glass which forms the legs of the table. Suffice to say the production of such a piece requires a precision borne of years and years of patient workmanship.

The philosophy behind each design is to follow the concept at all costs. Whilst the resulting creation might be uncommercial, unscalable and upon occasion, dare we say it, impractical, there is no doubt that our pieces are unique, eclectic, and original. They are made with a dedication to detail that will ensure the piece will endure as a modern classic for years to come. Not everyone’s cup of tea but to a select few, they are refreshingly and tantalizingly desirable.

James is fortunate to have collaborated with incredibly talented designers over the years. His strengths of craftsmanship, knowledge of materials and original processes with which to work them, offers ReCreativity the opportunity to collaborate with designers to create bespoke pieces for contracts that require something very special.