Igor Zigor (b. 1994) is a self-taught craftsman and artist currently living and working mainly in Montreal, Quebec. Exploring diverse creative approaches, his practice focuses on sculptural works, frames, experimental graphic studies, and, more recently, furniture design. Using ancestral techniques and meticulous craftsmanship, he transforms wood, ceramic, and metal, often pushing materials beyond their traditional roles. In Quebec, he sources materials from his family lands, deepening his connection to heritage and nature while embracing an ethical, hands-on approach that challenges modern production and consumption dynamics.



Pine from the family land, burned until it turns black

The wood comes first. Igor Zigor cuts his pine on land his family holds in Quebec, brings it to the workshop in Montreal and sets fire to its surface. The method is shou sugi ban, a Japanese way of preserving softwood by charring it: the flame hardens the outer millimetres, raises the grain and leaves a carbon skin whose depth of black depends on how long the burn lasts. Pine is light and resinous, so it takes the fire readily and keeps a warm core under the crust. Atelier Igor Zigor offers the same silhouette in a full burn, black through and through, or a half burn where charred and raw wood share one object. Two of those objects are at The Oblist.

The Spiky Mirror surrounds its glass with a frame cut into teeth. Light catches the ridges and the piece reads as a relief before it reads as a wall mirror; a stand is offered for those who would rather lean it on a console or the floor. The Spiky Stool takes the identical profile and lowers it onto black legs. It serves as a seat by a bath or a bed, and as an occasional table beside an armchair, which is why it appears both with the sculptural stools and with the end tables on the site. The two pieces come from one drawing and are often bought as a pair.

Igor Zigor did not train in a school. He learned by making, and the practice behind Atelier Igor Zigor has stayed broad: sculpture, picture frames, graphic studies and furniture, in wood but also in ceramic and metal, using techniques that predate industrial finishing. The furniture is the part that reaches the market. Everything is cut, assembled and charred by hand, one object at a time, and because fire is not a repeatable tool no two burns are the same shade. That is the point. A Spiky Stool holds its place in a room when nobody is sitting on it, as a block of black wood with a jagged top, and this is what makes Atelier Igor Zigor a collectible rather than a furniture brand.

Atelier Igor Zigor is part of the Canadian and North American makers represented by The Oblist. Burn finishes and the mirror's stand option are detailed on the product pages. Architects and interior designers specifying a charred pine piece for a chalet, a residence or a hotel can order through the Trade Program.