In the hands of Thomas Roger, wood stops being just a material and becomes a language in its own right. A language that speaks of balance, of doubt, of that subtle distance between the artisanal gesture and artistic research.
From his base in Mulhouse, Alsace, Roger creates objects that seem suspended between design and sculpture, between function and expression. His studio, founded in 2022, is where traditional woodworking techniques meet a contemporary sensibility built on observation, slowness, and respect for the material.
“Most of the time I doubt,” he writes on his website. “I try to understand what’s inside me, what’s inside the wood, and why I make objects, why I seek art. Then a spark arrives, when the object becomes something else. Maybe that’s what I chase, maybe that’s what we call functional art.” These words capture the heart of his practice: a constant dialogue between control and surrender, between constructed form and the unforeseen that emerges.
His collections grow from a precise yet never rigid gesture. Volumes articulate like small architectures, made of planes that meet while leaving room for voids. In some projects, such as the Kruth series, the wood is cut, charred, brushed, and finally waxed with beeswax and carnauba. Each surface retains the marks of time and process, telling a story of balance between roughness and delicacy.
This sensitivity extends beyond the atelier, as in his recent collaboration with Clara Valdes, a fellow Mulhouse-based designer and ceramicist. Inspired by his wooden constructions, Valdes reinterpreted the same forms in stoneware or Jesmonite using the slab technique. Once fired, Roger intervenes by adding cords, ropes, or threads, turning each piece into a two-voice dialogue. “In Thomas’s process there are five faces that respond to one another, articulating while leaving a space at the center,” Clara explains. “The clay seems to be worked like wood. The découpe is sharp, but the assembly is delicate. The balance between spontaneity and an almost mathematical construction sketches an intimate space.”
But Thomas Roger’s wood doesn’t remain confined to craft. In 2025, his aesthetic caught the eye of Louis Vuitton, which chose him as a collaborator for the Women’s Cruise 2026 show by Nicolas Ghesquière. Within the walls of the Palais des Papes in Avignon, his wooden cases and structures became an integral part of the set design and accessories, inspired by medieval heroines. A meeting point between Alsatian craftsmanship and French couture, between the handmade gesture and mythic storytelling.
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Thomas Roger’s practice moves along a fine line: the one that connects the everyday object to the work of art. His forms carry a pull toward the essential, a search for balance that speaks of care and responsibility. And within this space, Roger keeps looking.
