Tim Stead was a British sculptor, furniture maker, writer and environmentalist whose work dissolved conventional distinctions between sculpture, design and everyday objects. Born in Helsby, Cheshire, he studied fine art at Trent Polytechnic before completing postgraduate study at Glasgow School of Art.
Working principally in wood, Stead responded to the grain, form and imperfections of individual timbers rather than imposing a predetermined design. He became particularly associated with native Scottish hardwoods, including elm, ash and sycamore, and treated functional furniture as an extension of his sculptural practice.
His major commissions included the furniture for Café Gandolfi in Glasgow in 1979, the papal chair created for Pope John Paul II’s visit to Scotland in 1982, and the furnishings for St John’s Chapel in the Kirk of St Nicholas, Aberdeen, completed in 1989.
In 1981, Ian Spence commissioned Stead to produce furniture for The Round Table restaurant in Edinburgh. The resulting centre and console tables combined strong sculptural forms with inlays of Scottish specimen woods.
Stead was also a collaborator on the monumental Millennium Clock, completed in 1999 and now displayed at the National Museum of Scotland. The animatronic sculpture combines wood, glass, metal, music and movement in a meditation on the tragedies and hopes of the preceding millennium.
