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Cyriaque Ambroise

Cyriaque Ambroise makes everyday wooden objects by hand, a practice he describes as slow-making since 2018. His studio contact address is on Hackney Road, London, and his journal places him working between London, Paris and the Massif Central, France. In August 2019 he learned wagatabon tray carving from Professor Masashi Kutsuwa, who learned it from the wagatabon master Shinichi Moriguchi. [12, 13, 14]

Profile

Background

Cyriaque Ambroise is a French woodworker who is also a professional tree climber. He works with simple hand tools in an open-air studio, and his relationship to wood begins at the scale of living trees, fresh logs and local woodland material. His trays and tea tools follow the grain and use green wood.

A major formative episode was The New Craftsmen's 2022 "Plant Explorations" project with Kew Gardens. Ambroise studied objects in Kew's Economic Botany Collection, including hand-carved Japanese Wagatabon trays, and responded with Wagatabon-derived trays, wabi-cha tea objects, stools and tables. Galerie Montméat Maurel dates his ongoing Wagatabon collection to 2019 and documents the sequence: fresh local logs are squared with axe and hand saw, then slowly carved on an atedai with chisel, gouge and mallet before dyeing or oiling.

His tree work, green-log handling and simple-tool practice involve splitting, following grain and accepting irregular material; the Wagatabon encounter supplied a historical working system. In 2024 he took part in a tea-focused exhibition at Le Sentiment des Choses.

Practice

No trees are cut down specially for the work; the wood is harvested locally from storm-fallen or responsibly pruned trees, shaped roughly and then carved and finished with hand tools. [15]

Work over time

  1. Practice milestone First trip to Japan; discovered wabi-cha at the Tsutsuji-no-chaya teahouse, Rikugi-en, Tokyo, and began teaching himself to carve wooden utensils for tea ceremonies. · Tokyo, Japan [16]
  2. Begins self-taught carving of tea utensils After discovering the Tsutsuji-no-chaya teahouse at Rikugi-en Garden, Tokyo on his first trip to Japan, he began teaching himself to carve wooden utensils for tea ceremonies. [16]
  3. Practice milestone Began presenting his hand-carved wooden objects publicly ('since 2018'). [12, 16]
  4. First public presentation of tea work Showed the self-taught tea work publicly after about three years of practice. [16]
  5. Apprenticeship Learned wagatabon tray carving from the Japanese woodworker Professor Masashi Kutsuwa. · Teacher: Masashi Kutsuwa. Period: August 2019. [13]

Evidence and sources

References

  1. Wagatabon, plateau de bois — Galerie Montméat Maurel
  2. Galerie Montméat Maurel
  3. Plant Explorations — Remodelista / The New Craftsmen at Kew Retrieved 2026-09-28
  4. Plant Explorations — Crafts Council
  5. Moments of calm — Daily rituals (November 2025) Retrieved 2026-09-28
  6. Le sentiment des choses gallery — 2025 / December / Paris Retrieved 2026-09-28
  7. News — Cyriaque Ambroise Retrieved 2026-09-28
  8. The New Craftsmen — 2022 / May / London Retrieved 2026-09-28
  9. Work — Cyriaque Ambroise Retrieved 2026-09-28
  10. Wagatabon, wooden tray — Galerie Montméat Maurel
  11. Autour du thé — Le Sentiment des Choses
  12. About — Cyriaque Ambroise Retrieved 2026-10-02
  13. Wagatabon - Japanese sweet chestnut tray Retrieved 2026-10-02
  14. Journal — cyriaque ambroise Retrieved 2026-10-02
  15. Carved with hand tools — Slow-making (December 2025) Retrieved 2026-10-02
  16. Wabi-cha - The Japanese way of tea - Cyriaque Ambroise Retrieved 2026-10-02