Every day,
a little closer.

Each figure stands on a small carriage held in a curved slot cut into the deck. Below, a central gear drives two toothed racks — one to each side — so both carriages are drawn inward by exactly the same amount. The movement advances once a day and then rests. You will not see it happen; you will only see that it has.

The track is 46 mm long on each side, so 92 mm of distance closes between them. We divide that by the number of days you choose and set the mechanism to advance by that amount. Ninety days works out at almost exactly one millimetre a day, which is where the piece takes its name. A longer commission moves more slowly; a shorter one moves further each day.

Yes, but not invisibly. The control on the back of the base lets the movement be reset and recalibrated to a new duration, which returns the figures to their starting positions. There is no way to nudge a date by a few days without starting the journey again — the piece keeps one promise at a time.

The figures stop where they are. Nothing is lost and nothing resets. Replace the cell through the hatch on the back, set the number of days already elapsed, and the movement picks up from that point. We size the cell for well beyond a single commission, and we will tell you what it is so you can buy one anywhere.

This is what we are working on now. Resetting for a second commission is straightforward; what we are still refining is whether the drawer can be re-locked at home or whether it needs to come back to the studio. Until that is settled we would rather you bought this as a piece that keeps one date beautifully than as one that promises to keep every date.

No. It unlocks. A brass pin withdraws as the figures complete their travel, and from that moment the drawer can be drawn out by hand. Nothing springs open and nothing announces itself — the piece simply stops holding the drawer shut.

The compartment is about 11 cm wide, 7 cm deep and 3.2 cm high. A folded letter, a ring in a slim box, a photograph, a necklace, a key, a small keepsake. A standard hinged ring box will not fit; a slim one will. There is a folding template further up this page so you can check a letter before you commission.

Not without dismantling the base, which we would rather you did not do. The lock is mechanical and it is genuinely a lock. That is the entire point of it.

We offer this, and we are still building the part of it we are confident in. Letters and flat keepsakes we will place, photograph and seal before the piece ships. For anything of real value — a ring in particular — we currently ask that you place it yourself, because we would rather not be the reason it is somewhere else on the day.

Within what can honestly be carved by hand and repeated: hair length and shape, the silhouette of the clothing, and whether the arms rest or reach. Wood species changes their colour. We do not offer likenesses. The figures are meant to be two people, not two particular people, so that the piece still means something in thirty years.

The figures, the heart and the finishing are carved and worked by hand. The base and deck are turned, and the brass fittings and the movement are made to tolerance — you cannot hand-whittle a gear that has to be right for a year. Where a machine does the job better we say so. What you are buying is not the absence of machines; it is the presence of a person.

Six to nine weeks from the point the design is approved, depending on where the piece sits in the queue and how the wood behaves. If we are running behind, you will hear it from us before you have to ask.

No, and it is not meant to. The grain is different in every board, and a carved figure carries the hand that carved it. Two pieces sitting side by side will read as the same object and as obviously separate objects. Photographs on this site show the design, not your piece.

The dome travels separately from the base, in its own moulded cradle inside the outer case, and the figures are held in transit blocks so nothing loads the mechanism. Every piece ships insured, and the packaging is designed to be kept — you will want it if you ever move house.

Yes, from whatever is still unclaimed. Numbers are held while you complete payment and released again if it is not finished. Once your payment confirms, that number is yours and it leaves the list permanently.

Not of this edition. Ninety-nine pieces, numbered 01 to 99, and then the edition closes. If the studio makes another kinetic piece one day it will be its own object with its own name — it will not be a hundredth of this one.

They stay met. The piece becomes an object about something that already happened rather than something still coming, which is a quieter thing to own but not a lesser one. Most of what we have made so far has stayed on the shelf it was put on.

Yes. The movement is serviceable through the back panel, the drawer and the dome are replaceable, and we keep the drawings and the offcuts of your board. Send it back and we will put it right. This is a piece meant to outlive the occasion that prompted it.

Two years on the mechanism and on the making, covering anything that fails in normal use. It does not cover a dropped dome, and it does not cover wood moving in a very dry room — though we will always advise, and usually we can help anyway.