Portrait by Piet-Albert Goethals
about us
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Moss Studio, a small woodturning studio, located in Menen (Belgium), is a collaborative endeavor founded in 2022 by interior architect and woodturner Mario Vanwynsberghe (b. 1973 – Vincent Van Duysen Architects, Nòbrega-Borghmans) and his wife, Veerle Knockaert (b. 1974), herbalist.​
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At Moss Studio, Vanwynsberghe repurposes wood from local trees. Using the traditional craft of woodturning, he engages in a physical, intuitive, and grounding dialogue with the material, exploring the tension between the wood’s inherent force and the attentive guidance of the chisel. This interplay is translated into a contemporary visual language that invites a reconnection with authenticity. Knockaert contributes through research, enriching each piece with bespoke natural finishes and homemade stains.
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Through this collaborative process, Moss Studio celebrates the quiet grandeur of nature, championing sustainable practices and the creation of harmonious living spaces. Guided by nature’s silent dialogue, they strive to capture nature's essence in their work.
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The resulting sculptural objects are understated, light, and tactile. They embrace the innate character of the wood and honor the beauty of organic form and imperfection. Emerging from a thoughtful yet organic process, they embody a refined simplicity that seems to transcend time.
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At the core of Vanwynsberghe’s practice is what he calls momentanising: the act of stilling a living material in time—allowing its movement, memory, and quiet transformations to settle into a single moment. As the wood dries and stabilizes, it reveals a graceful lightness and fragility, made possible by the thinness of the turned forms. These are qualities not typically associated with wood, yet central to the tension and poise that define the work of Moss Studio.
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Each form is meticulously handcrafted in-house. A limited number of unique pieces is released each year, all turned from freshly cut, solid logs on the lathe.
Moss Studio works exclusively with locally sourced, ethically harvested woods, including oak, chestnut, cherry, linden, acacia, and larch—never tropical or imported timber. Most of their materials come from fallen or diseased trees, or are reclaimed offcuts from a local sawmill, in line with their strong commitment to sustainability.
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Each object is turned to a delicate thickness—often just a few millimetres—resulting in lightweight, elegant forms. As the wood dries over several weeks, each object undergoes its own subtle transformation, further enhancing its one-of-a-kind character.​
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All pieces bear the marks of handcrafted work. Cracks, knots, insect boreholes, and signs of natural decay are not seen as flaws, but are embraced as distinctive features that celebrate the wood’s authentic nature.​
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To finish their pieces, Moss Studio employs techniques such as fuming, blackening, burning, bleaching, and colouring with natural dyes. They avoid the use of synthetic substances; all oils and waxes are of natural origin. The beeswax they use is sourced from a local beekeeper and purified in-house.
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