Gye Nyame Adinkra Raffia Coffee Table, Glass Top

A round handmade centre table: natural raffia rope coiled over a recycled tyre body, with the Gye Nyame Adinkra symbol worked into the top in dark rope, a clear round glass top above it and four tapered brass tone legs. Most statement furniture in a room has to fight for a job. This one already has the job of a coffee table, and does the talking underneath the glass rather than on top of it, so the surface stays usable. The glass sits on small posts just clear of the rope, which is what lets you read the symbol through it while still putting a cup down. The body is a worn out tyre, wound round and round with rope until the tyre disappears. It is a genuinely old idea in West African furniture making, and it is the reason a table this size is still liftable by one person. The rope is banded in dark and natural blocks around the sides, and the coiled symbol on the top face is laid in by hand, coil by coil. Lift the glass off to move the table. Dust the rope with a soft brush and keep it out of standing water.