Tea Tray 2610

Tea Tray 2610 is a minimalist tea tray created by Tbilisi-based practice Design Studio NAO. The discarded oak strips lay scattered across the workshop floor of KAO furniture, remnants of daily production that most would sweep into the waste bin. But when Japanese designer NAO encountered these 26mm by 10mm profiles, they saw something else entirely: the precise dimensions for a tea tray that would embody both Georgian materiality and Japanese philosophy in a single, elegant form.

This moment of recognition speaks to the heart of sustainable design – not the grand gesture of inventing new materials, but the quiet intelligence of seeing potential in what already exists. The tea tray that emerged from this collaboration represents more than cross-cultural exchange; it demonstrates how traditional craft knowledge can address contemporary environmental concerns through the simple act of paying attention.

The decision to employ traditional Japanese joinery techniques, eschewing screws entirely, transforms necessity into virtue. These connections, refined over centuries in Japanese woodworking, create joints that strengthen over time rather than loosen. When applied to Georgian oak – a wood known for its density and durability – the marriage of material and method produces an object that embodies both cultures’ respect for permanence over disposability.

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