Cécile Daladier, Ceramicist

WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY: LINSEY RENDELL

MEET CÉCILE

French artist Cécile Daladier lives in the beautifully mountainous Drôme department on the cusp of ‘Haute’ Provence in the country’s south. In this remote, idyllic place, away from the din of the city, she engages closely with the natural world, which strongly informs her artistic practice.

“My whole life, my work gravitated around the artistic, poetic and existential interaction between humans and the landscape they live in. The garden has become the epicentre of this artistic reflection and in my ceramic work, on vases, it is even more focused on the essential elements,” says Cecile.

“Ceramics is a medium that brings together water, earth and plants on a very small scale—a few flowers, a little water, in a little enamelled earth, can move us.” 

Various vases made by Cécile complete with flowers.

Since 2009, she has been dedicated to the medium of ceramics, wielding earth, water and plants into objects, vessels, and specifically vases that encourage us to be present, to remain available, to marvel. 

Cécile’s oeuvre has seen many successful iterations and re-inventions throughout her career. A profound dedication to classical music initially led her to accompany vocalists as a pianist and inventing a new method of initiating children to classical music. Cécile followed her curiosity towards fine arts, shaping a multi-disciplinary body of work spanning paintings, sculpture, gardens and land art installations, with persistent contemplation of flowers, water, wind and weather.

When Cécile and partner Nicolas Soulier—an architect and urban planner—returned to Paris after living in Nîmes, Montpellier and Lyon for many years, they craved the proximity to nature they’d come to know in the south. At first, with no garden of their own, they designed jardinières (window boxes) and jardins miroirs (mirror gardens) for windows or walls to welcome nature inside. Then having found a house with a courtyard, they set about transforming the 20 square-metres into a small garden. Domain in Miniature won first prize in an international competition for ‘best private plots’ by a renowned jury in 2006. 

In her ceramic practice, Cécile has found a mode of transferring small gardens into the house.

Cécile throws a vase on her potter’s wheel.

SPACE

When I visit Cécile at her home in Vesc, it’s summer and we’re midway through a week-long heatwave that’s blazing across France. Snow had only last fallen here in May. And yet in June, the force of 38-degree Celsius heat seized our pleasure of being outdoors. 

There’s a potency to nature’s presence here—surrounded by tall mountains, with views stretching to the Rhône Valley below. The late afternoon storms are fervent at this height. Standing in the garden, watering the flowers after the sun has receded, we watch as the charcoal clouds form overhead, appearing so close we might reach out and touch them. They deliver mostly wind and just a few sizeable raindrops, so there’s no need to duck for cover. It’s not a fury to be feared, but rather an energy to witness and appreciate. How often are we able to remain still and bask in such an untamed environment? It’s within this milieu that Cécile creates vases and vessels from the elements, intentionally and uncontrollably variable, imbued with emotion and presence. 

View from the terrace towards the Rhône Valley.

The Drôme region is historically known for its pottery (particularly the towns of Cliousclat and Dieulefit), however it is not traditionally known for its gardens. Flowers and foliage do not typically abut a house here. But Cécile and Nicolas’ restored farmhouse is different. Ivy creeps up walls and down stairwells; the surrounding land is woven with wide passages of wildflowers and clusters of cultivated garden. For Nicolas, plants are an architectural material; they complete the house. For Cécile, it is similar with her vases.

“Les fleurs sont très importante pour la vie. Do you agree?” she asks.

With her Pique-Fleurs, she encourages a departure from the larger-is-better bouquets of flowers, tightly arranged, abundant and tall, to instead focus on tiny flowers, which she believes are also deserving of exhibition.  

LEFT: Cécile gathering tiny flowers from her garden. RIGHT: One of her Pique-Fleurs.

What began as a holiday home while they were living and working in various cities across France has slowly become their permanent residence. “We have had this house for more than thirty years. [It was] initially an old farmhouse falling into ruins: there was still a roof, but water was seeping in from everywhere. No water, no electricity, no telephone... as at the beginning of the 20th century,” Cécile says. They’ve maintained the original stone walls, adding a little height here and there to increase sunlight entering each space. Custom ironwork windows were made locally. The thick walls keep the interior cool on a hot summer’s day. Cécile’s atelier sits below the main part of the house, connected by a traditional root cellar beneath the summer kitchen. In here, it’s cool with a little puddle of water rising from the earth through the concrete stairs—a natural refrigerator to keep fresh the cheese, fruit, and a homemade clafoutis. 

The garden and house in Vesc, Drôme, featuring Lili the cat and Mousse the dog (‘Mousse’ translates to ‘Moss’ in English).

With all their adjustments, they’ve taken care to adapt in a malleable, impermanent way. “At one time, this farm housed animals, fodder, tools, machines, and people who lived in a very different way from us now. And when there are no more animals, farmers, carts or ploughs, we can think about how to adapt [these spaces], with the idea that this process will continue. This leads to minimal interventions open to other transformations. These rooms where I work, we had set up a kitchen, a bathroom, a large common room, then a music room. And now it is a spacious workshop with beautiful light, open to the surroundings of the house,” Cécile says. 

Morning light entering the atelier, which exhibits many of Cécile’s works.

The largest room of the atelier exhibits her current and past works—vases, bowls, cups, vessels, objects and experiments fill ledges and shelves, while a hand-built “loggia” houses an archive of her paintings. Works in progress line tables, such as a collection of tiny ephemera, both made and found. A tuft of moss and a dried mushroom sit alongside tiny baskets woven from wool or perhaps strands of rhubarb, which join ceramics, both fired and not. 

LEFT: Nicolas with Cécile’s paintings, stored in a hand-built “loggia”. RIGHT: Artwork by Cécile. BOTTOM: Details of the work Offrandes de la Nature!.

The adjoining room houses a potter’s wheel in one corner, a work table for hand-building in another, and a bench for preparing the clay and glazes. Aprons and smocks hang on the walls, various tools line the sink, and a small electric kiln awaits the arrival of cooler weather when recently made works can undergo their initial firing. Both rooms contain a small pot-belly stove to keep warm in winter, and both proffer views of the garden.

“I live in a wild and beautiful place and I live a lot outdoors. At the edge of the house, the garden that I have gradually shaped corresponds to this contact with what surrounds us. It proposes a permanent exchange. No cars, no noise masks the sounds of wind, birds, water and foliage.”

LEFT: Exterior of the atelier, south elevation. RIGHT: Interior of the atelier, working with clay.

Grasses, herbs, weeds, fruits and flowers co-exist among the loosely defined plots surrounding the house and atelier. Currants, fraises de bois (tiny wild strawberries), raspberries and cherries are cultivated among carnations, violets and verbena. Dandelions and yarrow emerge in the gaps, along with wild orchids, self-seeding carrot flowers, nigella and fennel. Passages of wildflowers and weeds support the melange of purposefully planted scabiosas, hellebores, bruxes, echinacea, geraniums and roses. The results of the garden are unfettered and spontaneous, much like Cécile’s pottery itself.

Garden and atelier, north elevation.

Detail of grasses and wildflowers in the garden.

In her current surrounds, Cécile works with the dynamics of nature, reframing the conventional idea of what makes a garden. She lets the wild and the intentional co-exist; rarely pulls the ‘weeds’, but rather trimming what will grow afresh.

“The garden is gradually being woven with plants, sculptures, paths, fences, terraces, shelters... on a daily basis it is a tool for work and life, which is very dear to me.”

These sculptures include her Capteurs, steel structures with a glass pane that holds water and gives the illusion of rainfall, heightens the sensation of wind, and reflects the sky and trees above. The presence of water and of reflection carries through to many of her box-shaped vases, or Pique-Fleurs en bassin, too—these acting as portable gardens once complete with water and flowers, and placed inside the house. 

A Capteur in the garden in Drôme.

PROCESS

Like water in her vases—quiet and reflective of its surroundings—Cécile too is discreet, tacitly celebrating the small intricacies of her environment.

“I love to be free, sincere, curious, and relentless,” she says. 

She explains the connection between her current artistic work and her past musical education: “By playing Mozart you can create a world of beautiful sound that is wrapped around you; it is a kind of composed landscape, too. I find this also reflected in the work with my gardens and vases. The difference is that here I create and I do not interpret like I do when I play music. What both practices have in common, however, is the precise work you have to do with your fingers. You need patience and perseverance. I determine the structure of future floral compositions in my vases, but once the vase is sold, the person who possesses it, ‘plays’ it; meaning, they will perpetually choose what flowers to pick and display.” 

Cécile works predominantly with one clay, Faïence des Ets Bermann prepared by Julien Crozat near Paris, and uses a raku technique.“I met a ceramicist who lived in a nearby village, and who had been a student of Camille Virot (one of the major figures of contemporary ceramics in France). Camille asked everyone during his internships to build his kiln, a technique that he also passed on in his books. We built a small kiln with bricks from an old local brick factory, straw, earth and cement.”

Hut for firing ceramics, featuring the wood-fired kiln Cécile made by hand. The low temperature at which raku is fired means Cécile can open the door of the kiln to decide at what stage she wants to take a piece out.

To practice raku, one must be open to the unexpected and the inability to replicate. “It’s always a surprise,” she says. “I don’t know exactly what will be the result.” While her jars of glazes are carefully hand-labelled and the odd preparative sketch dots her workspace, Cécile is not driven to precisely document the individual steps that form the creation of each finished piece. She will spend time contemplating a vase or a new collection, but always with a mind open to change—intentional or happenstance. 

LEFT: The incandescent ceramics are ‘smoked’ in these metal receptacles with dried herbs and flowers from the garden. RIGHT: Detail of wood used to fuel the kiln.

Dressed in a firefighter’s helmet, a fire-proof costume and using long tongs, Cécile removes each incandescent work from the kiln and places it in a metal container with dried herbs and flowers like lavender, angelica, fallen leaves and grass gathered from her garden. In the receptacle, the foliage quickly catches alight and Cécile smothers the flame by placing the lid on top, stifling the oxygen. As a reflex to this process, spontaneously posited dots, lines and stains of carbon emerge on the surface of the fired glaze. The tongs leave behind a “picture” at the point of contact, a tiny constellation of crackles individual to that specific piece’s experience of time and pressure. 

LEFT: Convolvulus arvensisor Liseron des champs (Field bindweed). RIGHT: Cécile determines the structure of the future floral composition when creating the vase.

The directionality and number of holes added to a vase speak to Cécile’s desire to give the flowers room to breathe, an antithesis to large, tightly styled commercial bouquets.

When commencing an arrangement, she sorts her day’s pickings by size and length, before placing them in various vases. She takes her time, testing different positions, letting the flowers, fruits and foliage fall like dancers into a graceful pose that complements the emerging formation. It’s not until the tiny flowers are intently picked and carefully placed in the vases that the ‘work’ is complete. 

LEFT: Cécile arranges flowers from the garden in her vases. RIGHT: Pique-Fleurs en bassin.

Cécile’s detailed works give us endless opportunities to contemplate the world. “I see my work as poetic resistance to how our society has become used to consuming. The small, the fragile, the discreet can be stronger than the great, the monumental, the profuse. It could be a statement for the beauty of difference and for a careful, sustainable treatment of our environments.”

Cécile Daladier has exhibited in Australia, France, Switzerland, England, and the USA. She’s about to embark on her first trip to Japan, with an exhibition at NIDI Gallery in Tokyo in September 2019, displaying works in relation to tea. In Australia, her vases can be found at Mr Kitly in Melbourne. View more of her work on her website and Instagram.

An enduring thank you to Cécile, Nicolas, beloved Mousse (le chien), and Lili and Tao (les chats) for welcoming and hosting us in their home in Drôme, France in the creation of this story for Space & Process.  

Surroundings

A SHORTER VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE CAN BE FOUND ON THE DESIGN FILES. PHOTOS: MINDI COOKE. WORDS: JO HOBAN. VIDEO: LOU LIDDIARD-IMESON.

MEET SUZIE WILEY AND LAURA PASCOE

Suzie Wiley and Laura Pascoe have combined their skills to provide a specialised service within the architectural design space. The pair describe their business, Surroundings, as a human-centred design consultancy. Surroundings offers facilitated workshops that bring together the people involved in residential and commercial renovation and build projects, to stimulate discussion and share their ideas in a supportive environment. The central goal is to define a “human brief” that complements a functional architectural brief. Essentially, Suzie and Laura are advocates for richer, in-person conversations; their focus is on engaging a diversity of voices within a design process from its earliest stages, expanding opportunities to have varied opinions and ideas heard. Those ideas can then meaningfully influence a project. The upfront engagement also enhances the sense of community alongside the building process, empowering people to connect and converse as things evolve. 

Laura and Suzie in Surroundings workshop planning mode, assessing cards from one of their workshop packs.

“Our workshops inspire stakeholders to discuss ideas, viewpoints and experiences, creating a culture of trust and inclusion between the community, design team and project owners.”

There is a lively chorus in the air on the Summer day we visit Suzie and Laura in their new garden studio; the buzz of insects forms the bass line while birds warble freely over the top. The mood befits the morning, as the women are preparing for a workshop to be held in a couple of hours that will gather a different group of voices, this time of the human variety. As they work their way through a couple of last minute tasks, and discuss how the workshop might unfold, one senses an undoubted ease between the pair - the kind that only comes with time and experience.

Both trained architects, Suzie and Laura practised for a number of years in the early stages of their careers before meeting at the suggestion of a friend who thought they might be able to help each other. Apparently said-friend now regards them as “his best set-up!” The women laugh heartily when they relay this. I sense they are both amused, and proud. Indeed, their partnership has proven a good fit to date. Their small business has lately gained exciting momentum with a range of new clients commissioning their services, and existing clientele coming back for more.

Suzie and Laura say they are nomadic workers, though lately they can most often be found working together in the newly renovated studio underneath Suzie’s Queenslander home in Highgate Hill.

Having grown up in a fourth generation ‘building family’, Suzie recalls that her family made beautiful spaces that were later filled with good memories; her stomping ground was often houses in the process of being built or renovated by her family, and that had been designed by her uncle, an architect. After studying Architecture at QUT, Suzie spent a year in Italy, then worked in Brisbane and London before starting her own practice, Surroundings, in 2007, focused on residential houses. 

Laura always loved art and making things. She would help her father with building projects and was constantly inspired by her mother’s interior decorating work. After completing an Architecture degree at UQ, Laura lived and worked in Shanghai, China, and Vancouver, Canada, before returning to Brisbane. She worked in The Architectural Practice Academy before joining Suzie at Surroundings in 2011. 

Garden studio details.

“When we first met we discussed the basic idea of creating the Home Masterclass, and Laura also had lots of thoughts around that, so the idea just got legs,” Suzie explains. “We found the architecture industry systemically wasn’t addressing a diversity of human needs and had become somewhat standardised – architects can at times fall back on their own experience or bias, leading to a solution that fits one but not many. Schedule and fee pressure also restricts the architects from having time to delve into the community’s needs.”

“We saw a gap to efficiently and meaningfully plug in as a consultant.”

The two combined some exercises they had developed to create a workshop that forms a journey in itself. Since 2011, the Home Masterclass workshop has become well-refined, and has also acted as the basis for other workshops the pair have developed. The women have now run workshops in areas as diverse as education, health and social support services, land regeneration, retail and more.

Surroundings designed a custom workshop on retail experience for Aesop staff. They heightened the activity by facilitating it in the lovely grounds of the Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne. Photo by Jon Henzell courtesy of Surroundings.

“Each whole workshop is a customised experience rather than just snippets or disjointed exercises.”

SPACE

During 2017 and early 2018, the women took a step back from Surroundings project work to focus on their other respective projects. Laura has a flourishing ceramics practice - Brush and Wheel - so she ramped that up, exhibiting her work, and attracting high-end Australian furniture business, Jardan, as a stockist. She also travelled to China to further her ceramic studies, all the while working on finding and developing a new communal creative studio space, which is excitingly now coming to fruition (more on that below).

Suzie was managing various consulting projects and focusing on renovating her Queenslander home, including the downstairs studio, in consultation with Laura and others in their community. By August 2018, what was once a weedy hill, with dirt, some border lattice and a few lumps of concrete, had been transformed into an enchanting creative garden studio that beautifully blurs the lines between indoors and out. 

To celebrate the completion of Surroundings’ unique new base, Suzie and Laura opened the studio to the public in October as part of the Brisbane Open House event, offering a couple of free workshops, which were gratefully received. 

In October 2018, Surroundings ran two free Home Masterclass workshops from their new garden studio as part of Brisbane’s Open House event. Photo by Shantanu Starick provided courtesy of Brisbane Open House.

Both the upstairs and the downstairs were originally dark, closed-in spaces, so Suzie subtracted a whole room and introduced an atrium that floods the home and studio with natural light. With access to a bit of Vitamin D, it’s like a jungle down there!

TOP LEFT: Hello sunshine! The atrium allows the plants to flourish. TOP RIGHT: Laura and Suzie talk about their upcoming workshop over a cuppa. BOTTOM: Suzie traverses the entryway heading toward the kitchen. Sliding doors open onto an extended balcony with additional table and seating options enabling them to spread out when hosting larger groups.

Suzie tells me the build took nine months to complete: “It was quite a bit of work to design and draw it, while working at the same time. I also had to keep to a reasonable budget so there was significant redesigning involved.” She surveys the space, and smiles. “My mum’s a real gardener and we grew up outside, just always with her playing in the garden. Or with Dad in the shed. I can remember making creations with my brother and cousins.”

LEFT: The kitchen replete with vintage timber filing drawers repurposed as a kitchen island. RIGHT: The library and daybed area, perfect for a cuppa, a chat, or some reading. Suzie also sometimes uses it as a throwing area as she is a budding potter as well.

“This garden studio is my “take” on a creative space under a house.”

LEFT: Laura and Suzie in planning mode. RIGHT: Garden studio details.

The studio remains open to the elements as not all sides are walled, which is part of its beauty, but also creates some challenges. “I kept fighting myself to enclose it because I thought that’s what society requires – you maximise value, resale and all of that. But then it would be just standard house downstairs, rather than the special ‘under the house’ that I wanted. It’s much nicer as an experience without walls… In the past when it’s been cold Laura and I often work upstairs on the sunny deck. We like to move.” Laura agrees and elaborates:

“We are nomadic workers and find shifting spaces keeps our brains fresh and creative.”

“We meet at the studio as a base a couple of days a week, then work from our homes, or in cafes around the edges. I can also now be found at the creative studios, Vacant Assembly, that I’ve opened with collaborators, Sarah Seminutin and Sam Eyles.” 

Kitchen details at Vacant Assembly creative studios in Brisbane’s West End.

Vacant Assembly - a multi-purpose communal, creative space - is a new venture for Laura and her collaborators. Previously a large industrial warehouse in West End, the rabbit warren of interconnected rooms and spaces has required significant redesigning and is undergoing evolving renovations. Many would be daunted by such a project, but not this hands-on crew who are excited by the warehouse’s broad scope for creativity. In fact, the space presented its first couple of events – an art exhibition and a Monster Creative Maker’s Market – at the end of 2018, and has played host to many more since!

Keen to get the hub happening and for real activity to help shape the space as they go, Laura, Sam and Sarah have largely been prioritising renovation work according to most immediate short-term needs. At the same time, they recognised that with the large space in such early stages, it was a valuable opportunity for a Surroundings design workshop, to spark and share ideas between key organisers and some of the new studio occupants. So, after starting our day noseying around the Surroundings studio, Mindi and I were lucky enough to sit in on this special workshop process too! 

Surroundings recently facilitated a customised design workshop for Vacant Assembly - a project close to Laura’s heart!

PROCESS

Seven people, including Laura and Suzie, gather around a table in the voluminous, main space of the Vacant Assembly warehouse - apparently this is more or less the ideal size, keeping the workshop intimate. Present are Sam, Sarah, Giovanna, Caroline, and Sue: amongst them a potter, visual artist, picture framer, furniture maker, and experiential events co-ordinator. The session begins with a worksheet urging participants to explore their personal direction, and to imagine how the space could potentially support that growth.

Ambient music plays in the background, while contemplative faces stare for seconds at a time into distant corners of the warehouse, then turn back to their paper and madly scribble down their notes. “Tell me if the music’s too serious and we can change it,” says Laura, amused. Everybody laughs when they realise how easily they lost themselves in the task. Soon the round-the-table sharing of ideas loosens the group up for the next activity. Suzie and Laura introduce one of their custom-designed card sets called ‘Elements’. 

Workshop participants are encouraged to each choose some cards, arrange them in a specific order, and reflect on why they were drawn to those in particular. With a little bit of initial hesitation, Suzie gently urges the activity forward:

“Don’t think about it too much. Go with what you’re instinctually drawn to and try to reserve the thinking for afterward.”

An activity unfolds playing with Surroundings’ Elements card set.

It is a wonderful opportunity to be part of a group session while simultaneously being encouraged to explore ourselves, in relation to what we do and how we operate. A lot of questions hang in the air: What do we believe makes an ideal work environment? How do we like to, or aspire to, collaborate with others? What underpins the decisions we make? The insights gained on a personal level are a nice offshoot of the workshop’s core function: to develop a robust human design brief that represents the whole community.

The human brief will be an invaluable anchor point to help guide Vacant Assembly’s evolution from both a spatial and experiential perspective. Later, when I’m chatting with Suzie she describes more about how she views the workshops generally: “They’re an unearthing – something better to experience than describe.” 

“It’s about celebrating the individual, and then overlaps between individuals inevitably occur which help clarify ideas and shape a community.”

The early stages of a brainstorming activity.

Further into the workshop, the energy is heightened with the sharing and categorising of ideas for the space on some brown paper (what is a workshop without brown butcher’s paper, after all!). This time Laura selects some upbeat tunes to help the session along, and there’s a buzz of excitement as the group mill around brainstorming, listing, organising, and re-organising. They seem to have found their groove, and the session results in abundant ideas, with some clear commonalities starting to emerge.

In this instance the group arrange their ideas into the following categories: Landscape, Bar, Library, Collaboration, Lighting, Business, Events, and Spatial/Fun Stuff.

The final activity for the day focuses on drawing, and I have a go at this too. The mood becomes imaginative, even dreamy, as we each attempt to synthesize ideas into some form of visual representation. Again, all of these are shared and discussed at the end of the session, so everyone has a chance to contribute. It does feel like a rich, unguarded conversation where opinions and concepts are explored, as opposed to simply put forward.

The final drawing activity.

After a workshop, Laura and Suzie take all the information they have gathered and analyse it carefully, before developing their report – this is the human-centred brief we have been referring to, that will accompany the functional architectural brief. At this stage, while still bouncing ideas off each other, Laura tends to focus on graphics and analysis while Suzie writes the report. They play to their complementary strengths: “Our work is more than the sum of us somehow,” they say.

It’s not easy to facilitate diverse groups, although if done well it might appear that way. Laura tells me the main challenge is managing group dynamics:

“We get the full range of personalities, so our process is designed to give a voice to everyone and modulate them as well.” 

“It is important with any group that we have a diverse mix; we want each participant to be as unique as possible so they can experience a broad range of perspectives. Also, we often have architects at the table. The wider the representation will lead to a more inclusive design.” Another challenge, albeit one the women particularly enjoy, is adapting their process. The women try to continually reflect and trial ideas as they arise. For example, a recent project spurred on the creation of a brand new card set.

An example of a card set, designed and produced by Surroundings.

“Over the years we have developed a series of tools, exercises and methods. We use them as a base and adapt them to the current project. We are always inventing so new ones come along regularly.”

When asked whether they have run a workshop or series of workshops that particularly stands out – where the end design beautifully translates ideas that arose in the workshop – both women noted Hummingbird House, Queensland’s first children’s hospice. Surroundings was commissioned by Queensland Kids, the charity behind Hummingbird House, to connect with the project’s many user groups and gain insight into the functional and emotional needs of the hospice community. For kids facing life-limiting illness, their final days are often spent in hospitals and clinical adult environments unsuitable to their needs. Queensland Kids wanted to change this. 

Surroundings held a series of custom-designed and facilitated workshops in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne; they visited the only other two children’s hospices in Australia to learn and build on their best practices; and finally, they studied all of their collected information to develop their human-centred brief. During the workshop process, a number of significant, nuanced details were unearthed. For example, the act of bathing their kids was a treasured moment and calming experience for many families in this emotional situation. As a result, the architects, Thomson Adsett, adapted their design to extend the main bathroom to include an alcove at its entrance, where families could gather. You can read more about Hummingbird house here.

Drawing without judgement plays a key role in Surroundings workshops.

To date, Surroundings has grown organically via word-of-mouth. And that time has seen a marked interest on a global scale in the empathic philosophies that underpin human-centred design. Now, the pair are sharpening their focus on developing their design process offerings into the future. “I have so many ideas!” Suzie says energetically. “It would be great to find people who could co-facilitate with us who had different expertise.” She talks about how they’re exploring the digitisation of some of their offerings for people that can’t make it to a workshop in person, for various reasons. And offering personalised digital workshop support using video call applications. There is mention of a complementary Design Guide to go with the workshops, and stronger regular collaborations with architects and storytellers to help communicate the human brief in a more resonant format. “I can really see our work extending beyond the start of the project,” Laura muses. The women have noticed this unfolding particularly with their social and institutional work (schools, shelters, etc).

“Often our process informs the service delivery as well - the everyday running of a facility, not just spatial solutions. There’s so much we learn about human interactions and the flexibility required from design.”

How all this will play out, only time will tell. For now, Surroundings are looking forward to continually evolving and exploring new pathways: “I do think we’re good at recognising opportunities where we can add value,” says Suzie. “Rarely do people in workshops say ‘I’ve got this!’” Laura adds. “Most people are thinking ‘Ok, if we want to do a good job, we need help!’”

For more info, check out Surroundings and their customised, human-centred workshops. Follow their journey on instagram: @surroundingsees

Surroundings also now offer online Home Masterclasses and consults. Follow @surroundings_home

This story has been produced in collaboration with Surroundings.  

Mast Furniture

A SHORTER VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE CAN BE FOUND ON THE DESIGN FILES. PHOTOS: MINDI COOKE. WORDS: JO HOBAN

MEET RORY MORGAN, KATI MORGAN & CHRISTIAN HAKANSSON

Rory Morgan, Kati Morgan and Christian Hakansson are the impressive humans behind Mast – a furniture business focused on timeless design and quality craftsmanship. Though still in its infancy Mast has designed and produced some beautiful products to date, including the Willox and Title Series. The latter features beds with stunning steam bent headboards. Mast was initially set up by Rory and Kati in Noosa, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. In mid-2017 they relocated the business to Brisbane to be logistically better placed. On their journey to date, Mast have found it challenging to find the time to design new pieces while tackling the myriad demands of running a small business. However after much hard work, and huge learning curves, they’ve built a strong industry relationship base and are now focusing on growing their furniture range and doing less custom client work. They’ve also just opened a brand new showroom in West End where customers can physically experience Mast products, along with the aesthetic vibe of the brand, before committing to a purchase - exciting times for this talented crew! 

The team discuss some plans in the finishing area.

As lead designer and maker, Rory’s journey into furniture making was somewhat accidental. He’d originally thought he'd become an architect. As a child, his mum always had architecture magazine subscriptions, and Rory can remember eagerly flicking through the pages for ideas, then drawing up his own designs and making model houses. After school, Rory completed a Diploma in building design as a stepping stone to an architecture degree. Though while working as a draftsman for a couple of years following the diploma, he developed a keen interest in furniture – he began to recognise great value in the integrity of the designs that sit within the architectural forms, bringing them to life. Rory started playing around designing some furniture pieces that he and Kati needed at home. Through self-directed research and many-a-YouTube-video-tutorial, Rory developed the skills to start making furniture himself. From that point, his skills and interest have grown from strength to strength.  

LEFT: Useful storage cupboards were built from offcuts to minimise waste. RIGHT: Rory using the panel saw to cut a piece of timber to the correct length.

Kati is Mast’s Business Development Manager. She focuses on marketing and sales and is also now the new Showroom Manager (exciting!). Originally from the northwest of the USA,  Kati travelled to Australia on a student visa to study a Business Marketing and Creative Writing degree at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Her and Rory became a couple in her final year of study, and tied the knot in 2016. Kati worked primarily in retail throughout her 20s, and also maintained a stall selling handcrafted homewares at the Eumundi Markets. 

LEFT: Kati working hard to keep those emails at bay! RIGHT: Moving through the storage and finishing area.

Christian worked as an accountant for a few years before travelling and deciding to study Danish followed by furniture making at KTS Copenhagen Technical College. Part of his course involved finding an apprenticeship, so after spending a year working at a well-known Danish operation producing iconic wooden monkeys (yes those ones!), Christian contacted Rory and completed his apprenticeship with Mast, travelling between Australia and Copenhagen to study and practise as the course required. He has recently completed his studies and become the third owner of the business. 

The three of them bring complementary skills to the table and share a hard-working ethic and strong vision. “There are two values that underpin our work: good design and quality craftsmanship. In my view nothing we do can be relevant in the long term if one of these two things is missing. Longevity of our products is the end goal,” says Rory.  

"Longevity of our products is the end goal."

Christian sands the legs of a Willox Table.

SPACE

Originally based at the Sunshine Coast, Mast’s range evolved through working on small projects with clients. Their first piece was the Willox Barstool 01. The Willox collection spanned out from there, with a couple of other pieces joining the range. New designs then plateaued while Rory was kept busy with custom work. But ideas were percolating and as soon as he could find the time, Rory completed a short steam bending course with renowned woodworker, Ross Annels. Around this time Rory and Kati were inspired to step things up with Mast and design their “ultimate piece of furniture” – the Title Bed 04 with its brilliant steam bent headboard was borne, initiating the development of the rest of the Title Bed range. Minimal but imaginative, the Title Beds caught the attention of the design industry and design enthusiasts, and clearly positioned Mast within the higher end of the market. 

Title Bed 04 in Walnut. Image courtesy of Mast.

Now the business had a firmer foothold, Kati and Rory strategically considered their future. “We actually made the decision to move when we were in Los Angeles on holidays,” Kati explains. “The busy-ness and energy of the city, and the success of people growing businesses doing bespoken things was very inspiring. People move for work all the time so why should we be any different just because we’re self-employed? It makes a lot of sense for us to be in a metropolitan centre.” 

“The busy-ness and energy of the city, and the success of people growing businesses doing bespoken things was very inspiring.”

In mid-2017 they relocated their workshop from Noosa to Brisbane, taking up an industrial tenancy on the north side of town. Then in early 2018 Christian bought into the business, solidifying Mast’s core team. 

It’s a sunny day when Mindi and I visit Mast’s large workshop in Brisbane; staggered skylights let in a good amount of natural light. “Before moving in we sat down and designed the layout to optimise work flow,” Christian tells us. “In essence, the raw materials start down the back where we have our table saw, planer and thicknesser, etc. There’s a spray booth in the middle. Then furniture is sanded at the front before heading into the spray booth for finishing. The workshop has high ceilings and roller doors at either end, so we can open them up and get some nice airflow going. An office and staff room is in the pipeline for later in the year.”

Willox Table in process in the finishing area.

Christian gets back to sanding. He and Rory are busily finishing two Willox tables. The radio is on in the background and the buzz of tools punctuates the air. Kati tells me that they recently built storage cupboards in the front area of the workshop using offcuts from other jobs. The cupboards add some structure and design to the voluminous space. 

Recently added to the range, the Lo Side Table is a versatile, multi-purpose piece.

Using offcuts wherever possible and minimising environmental impact is important to Mast. They’ve recently designed and started producing their new Lo Side Tables using smaller pieces of offcut timber for the table tops. The Lo Side Table is also intended to diversify their range offering a practical, multi-purpose piece at a lower price point than their larger items. A lot of their other timber offcuts they donate to Men’s Sheds in Noosa who collect them every couple of months. As well as this, Mast work only with FSC certified timbers including Tassie Oak, American Oak, American Ash and American Walnut. “Wood is a great medium to work with; the look, the smell, the feel,” says Christian. “It’s the antithesis of a monotonous material. Each piece is different and has its own characteristics. It’s a living material which keeps things interesting and challenging. You can saw a board down the middle and watch the board warp right in front of your eyes with the release of tension.” Rory laughs: "It can be a pain in the arse for the exact same reasons though!"

The spraybooth is located in the middle of the workshop. Rory spays a coat of colour onto a Willox table frame to stain the wood. The table will then need to be sanded and another coat of colour applied.

I get chatting with Rory and quiz him about his (predominantly) self-taught skills. “When I get interested in something I just get obsessed with it,” he explains. “There’s so much information online now, whether it’s put out by an old woodworker from his garage workshop who’s been doing it his whole life, or whatever… I approach furniture making more from a design perspective. My interest in learning how to make things grew out of the desire to be producing something I’d designed, rather than just wanting to make something."            

"I approach furniture making more from a design perspective."

2017 was a busy year for Mast with lots of custom work ticking over – “a little too much” according to Kati. “It was stressful. Making and selling everything leaves little time for much else, which means we are very time poor on the design front. There are different challenges at every stage of this business and some have tested us more than others. I jokingly refer to all mistakes as ‘learning experiences’, because as time goes on we all see that mistakes are where the growth comes from – it’s just as important to work out what you shouldn’t be focusing on as to learn what you should.”

"As time goes on we all see that mistakes are where the growth comes from."

The challenges of the journey so far have resulted in a clearer vision for the future, with a fresh focus on purposefully growing the Mast range. “Over the last couple of years we’ve learnt that we don’t want to take on projects from a purely economic point of view,” says Rory. “Our experience has emphasised to us that we need to focus on growing our range of furniture. We’re starting to work with some other Australian designers to help us do this, which I find really exciting.” 

PROCESS

One of these designers is Tom Fereday who Rory recently engaged to design a dining table and bench seat. The process is collaborative – Tom provides designs, Mast create prototypes, Rory and Tom critique the prototypes, iron out issues and make again, until a design is final. “I love designing things myself, but I also really love seeing what other people design. And I think doing a mixture of both is a healthy way for us to grow and engage with a wider audience,” Rory explains.  

The Louis Dining Table and bench seats - designed by Tom Fereday and made by Mast. Photo courtesy of Mast.

Rory tells me his own design process involves a lot of thinking, for days or weeks, until he can’t move forward any further without sketching ideas and then drawing them on a computer. Interestingly, he notes ‘knowing the purpose for creating the product in the first place’ as the biggest design challenge: “Without a specific goal of what you are trying to create and the reason for it, it’s hard to know if the design is good. I like to have an end goal to work towards. It could be something as simple as ‘a barstool with back rest for commercial use’ – it really helps.”

“Without a specific goal of what you are trying to create and the reason for it, it’s hard to know if the design is good.”

When Mindi and I visit there are two Willox tables in the finishing area. Observing Rory and Christian at work, there’s an ease with which they go about their tasks – an air of productive teamwork. Sometimes they’ll work together, such as when they need to join the components of a table, and other times they’ll work separately, such as prepping wood in the thicknesser and planer, or spraying parts in the spray booth. 

TOP LEFT & RIGHT: The guys fit a tenon into a mortise (the slot the tenon fits into) and then connect the Willox table top frame to the legs. Woodworkers around the world have used mortise and tenon joints for thousands of years to provide structural integrity within furniture.

Starting out doing everything by hand, Mast have introduced machinery over time to make processes more efficient and the business viable. Their biggest investment is their CNC machine. Put simply, this is like a large computer that reads digital data to do particular tasks such as cut shapes in the wood for them. It’s been a game-changer and they all speak of the CNC fondly! That said, Rory and Christian still find their hand tools, particularly the planes, are very important and they’re involved in the making and finishing of most pieces. When I ask about them, I’m lead over to three storage drawers and voila – the saws, chisels, handplanes and more, appear neatly laid out before me. “Hand tools give you a great foundational knowledge as they teach you how to read wood really well – you need to know the grain direction of the timber so you don’t tear it up. All that translates across to machinery as well,” explains Rory. “Whenever I get the opportunity to use handtools it just kinda slows everything down a little bit and takes a bit of noise out of the workshop. That’s definitely enjoyable!”

LEFT: Table components ready to be used. RIGHT: Hand planes and wood shavings.

SHOWROOM

Until now, Kati has been a regular presence in the workshop. Her tasks have been a “mixed bag” ranging from quoting on jobs, and working on the marketing of Mast, to applying for business support, running errands for the boys, and keeping an eye on cashflow and finances. With the opening of the new showroom, things are shifting.  

“I think working from the showroom every day will give me a stronger focus.”

“For me, there’s a been a lot of jumping around from task to task,” Kati explains, “I’ve always got so many little projects on the go. So, I think working from the showroom every day will give me a stronger focus. Obviously I’ll still be doing emails and all of that from this space instead, but running less errands for the boys!” 

Interior of the new Mast showroom on Montague Street in Brisbane's West End.

Online has served them well, and the Mast team have worked hard to develop a cut-through brand with a strong visual presence. That said, they all feel the time is right to take the next step of having their furniture in a physical space that represents them - a Mast "home". The new showroom is located in inner Brisbane’s vibrant West End, in a building designed by Vokes + Peters. “The interior is basically a big blank canvas for us to work with. It’s a polished space that maintains the industrial feel of the original building with high ceilings and exposed steel trusses…We’ll be rotating a selection of pieces from our range, starting mostly with our hero pieces. If people have an interest in furniture, they can come and enjoy a casual viewing with no strings attached. That’s what the showroom offers,” Kati explains. 

Showroom interiors. LEFT: Louis Dining Table & Bench Seats. Ceramic sculptures by Gidon Bing. Jute Rug by Georgia Cannon. Painting by Gemma Smith on loan from Milani Gallery.

“Through our travels over the years we have fallen in love with makers from all over the world.”

While the showroom will offer the joyous experience of actually lying on a real Title Bed (I know I'm not the only one coveting these beds!), it will also stock a select range of homewares. “Through our travels over the years we have fallen in love with makers from all over the world. When we started planning the space, we immediately got in contact with several of these brands. Luckily for us, they’ve all come on board.” 

Mast's new showroom stocks a carefully curated range of homewares.

"Having a space to host our customers in will be amazing!"

"Everything about opening the showroom is exciting... Having a space to host our customers in will be amazing! I think in the past when people came to the workshop to view our furniture they felt like they had to commit – it can feel quite intimidating and I don’t want people to feel that pressure,” says Kati. On that note, if you're in West End, pop in and check out the showroom; Kati will be pleased to see you. “We've tried to create a space that's minimal but interesting...It almost feels like we’re starting a whole new business, sort of like we’ve graduated to the next level in our industry and added a whole new facet to our brand!” 

Showroom interiors, including the installed Title Bed 04 - swoon!

In Brisbane, you can see and purchase Mast's beautiful range of furniture in their showroom (270 Montague Road, West End) or online. In Sydney, Koskela stocks a few select Mast pieces. Follow Mast's journey on instagram: @mastfurniture

This story has been produced in collaboration with Mast. 

Jeweller to the Lost

A shorter version of this article was originally commissioned by and published on The Design Files. PhotoS: mindi cooke StylIST: Bianca PottingeR WorDS: Jo Hoban

MEET BARBARA HEATH & MALCOLM ENRIGHT 

Barbara Heath and Malcolm Enright are renowned in Brisbane’s art and design sector. An inspired partnership, they have run their business, Jeweller to the Lost, for many years. Barbara is a designer and jeweller who has had a successful career fashioning meaningful, wearable objects and conceptual sculptures for varied clients. Predominantly, these clients commission Barb to create custom jewellery pieces either from scratch, or to rework existing pieces and interesting objects that they already own, into something fresh and relevant – symbols of their personal narrative. In 2005, Barbara was honoured by the Queensland Art Gallery with a retrospective exhibition of her unique work. Malcolm is an energetic communication designer, an art enthusiast and a collector of ephemera and clocks. He’s also a Horologist, and a general wealth of cultural information! Between them, Malcolm and Barbara have worked on 21 high-profile public art sculptures. They have also sat on the boards of a range of art institutions. 

Barb saws out a Banksia leaf shape from a sheet of metal.

Originally from Melbourne, Barbara’s family was based in England from when she was aged six to 13, and they took whatever opportunities they could to travel. Barbara recalls seeing exceptional jewellery and objects in Scandinavia and Mexico which awakened her to the possibilities of handicraft and symbolism. After school Barbara did an apprenticeship with Laslo Puzsar, a Hungarian diamond jeweller in Melbourne’s CBD. He sent his apprentices part-time to the RMIT Gold and Silversmithing degree course providing Barbara with a fantastic opportunity to experience a foot in each camp – a commercial workshop with other manufacturing jewellers, combined with the design learnings from RMIT where they urged you to create original, conceptual work. Somewhat of a restless hippy, Barbara did this for a couple of years and then went travelling, ending up in Sydney, where she and her first partner, an artist from Berlin, sold jewellery at the Oxford Street Markets and opened up a shop called Craft on Bondi Road. They embarked on a seven year project of building a boat together, and in 1983, once it was completed, they sailed for 12 months before anchoring in Brisbane. The relationship disbanded but Barbara stayed on in Brisbane, where she took a studio space in the Metro Arts building and started to build a viable business as an independent jeweller. 

LEFT: Mal mans the Jeweller to the Lost studio desk. RIGHT: Studio workbenches.

Meanwhile, Malcolm Enright had grown up in Brisbane. An outgoing young man, he scored his first job working with Max Fulcher in Myer's advertising department in Fortitude Valley's McWhirters Building (at the time it was like Brisbane’s equivalent of Madison Avenue!). He carved a rewarding career in advertising and communications, involving frequent trips to Sydney and New York, and always with an eye to the rest of the globe. Come the ‘80s he was an engaging creative director, art and local ephemera collector, a bold fashion enthusiast and a curator with an infectious passion for left-of-centre culture. 1985 saw Malcolm make the leap into his own freelance career pursuing a holistic approach to life, where business could be more easily merged with a healthy lifestyle. As a communications designer and strategist this vivacious man worked with numerous clients consulting on a range of aspects from corporate image to niche campaign strategies. In 1986 Mal brought an exhibition of graffiti art over from New York called ‘Outside Art’ and he showed it at Brisbane’s That contemporary art space. It was at the opening of this show that Mal and Barb met, marking the beginning of their creatively fruitful partnership! 

Offcuts from a series of Banksia Leaf brooches that Barb had recently made. "Malcolm will often come along and pick offcuts off the workbench that he thinks could be saved - he sees something, a beauty in an offcut that will remind us of what we were doing at a certain time," says Barb.

SPACE

After a couple of years in the Metro Arts building where she first set up, Barbara moved her atelier to the 2nd floor of the upmarket Brisbane Arcade where her commissions and the interest in her work continued to grow. The 80s was a deeply exploratory period for Barbara and she travelled to New York for an extended visit at Parsons School of Design to seek fresh inspiration under the tutelage of leading jewellers from around the world. Soon after she returned she relocated her studio to LaTrobe Terrace in Paddington. With her unique and personal approach to jewellery design, Paddington’s vibrant hub of charming retail was a good fit. Barbara continually pushed the boundaries of what jewellery could embody or symbolise, and how it could manifest. She worked hard and despite inevitable challenges, her practice flourished throughout the 90s. 

Barbara and Malcolm’s creative partnership also slowly blossomed. In 1995 they moved into Malcolm’s partially renovated Queenslander together and got busy building a studio underneath the house for their custom jewellery business, in which Mal was gradually, and rather organically, assuming a communications and co-ordinating role. The large studio area features a wall of west-facing glass that looks toward a lush rainforest garden. Half of the studio space is dedicated to client displays and inspirational resources, while the other half is the workshop area. 

LEFT: View across workshop floor with old butcher's block in the foreground. "It's a great rock solid, sound-deadening hammering spot!" laughs Barb. RIGHT: Tools in vintage cabinet.

The day Mindi, Bianca (our stylist pal) and I visit is a warm Spring day and we’re greeted warmly by Mal and Barb, and rather excitedly by Ronnie the dog! We spend a long time exploring the unique space to get a wonderful insight into how it operates. “As far as workshops go, this is the longest I’ve been in any one space, and it’s definitely the nicest workshop I’ve had,” says Barb. “The fact that it’s at home is a great thing for me – I really do like that blurring of boundaries between home and work…I also like being able to look out into the garden, seeing the weather and enjoying the changing light.”

"I really do like that blurring of boundaries between home and work."

The studio space is usually also occupied by Juan-Luis, a skilled manual jeweller who Barb discusses warmly: “Juan-Luis was originally my 16-year-old trainee, and he stayed. We work together very closely and have a wonderful, almost wordless understanding of how each other works. He’s a great problem solver, a great technician and an easy person to be around. It’s been a very successful working relationship. So, the three of us are a bit like a three-pronged stool, with Malcolm’s marketing and creative eye, his personality, documentation and Juan's technical precision. We’re all very different but we have complementary skill sets.” 

TOP: View of studio workbenches and the menagerie of equipment. BOTTOM LEFT: Juan-Luis at the bench. BOTTOM RIGHT: Studio details.

Over the years, there have also been many interns who have ventured into the studio for extended periods, bringing their fresh energy to the space and eagerly soaking up the artisanal skills and knowledge – “…what they get here is an opportunity to really see a productive, commercial workshop that’s producing different things, but it all has to be charged for, and we all have to survive from it. So we are working within constraints,” Barb explains. Mal is busying himself at the studio desk but pipes up about custom jewellery design being a service rather than your own art practice. “Yes” Barb agrees. “You are making something for someone, and it has a purpose, and a story that you’re invariably going to be told, and that the piece is about. The commission process is a real adventure,” Barb explains. “With commissioned or custom objects, you don’t really know what the outcome is going to be when you start out. Hopefully you’re going to find that, together, through a series of ideas and processes, and sketches, and looking at other things, and bringing each other’s input into it.”

Barb sketching some ring designs. Natural light fills the space from the wall of windows behind her.

"The commission process is a real adventure ... With commissioned or custom objects, you don't really know what it's going to be when you start out. Hopefully you're going to find that, together."

While Barb’s terrain is predominantly the workshop floor, Mal rules the roost in the display area, which is dotted with different cabinets containing various curiosities, precious stones, and other components. The studio display area feeds into the couple's collection archives where they have stored numerous categorised collections of objects and ephemera from bygone times in various antique chests of drawers and a cave-like nook that sits to the right of the studio’s back wall. In Mal’s nook, the ephemera is stored in airtight plastic boxes and piled high. The situation is somewhat overwhelming to the untrained eye, though well-organised to the veteran collector who knows where to pinpoint most categories and even particular items when called to action. The man is a walking library! Over the years many have called on him to source ephemera from his collection that reflects a certain cultural phenomena or trend, either for exhibition or design purposes. Malcolm is always at the ready and eager to share – his enthusiasm for the cultural peculiarities of certain times is palpable. 

PROCESS

People approach Barbara to work with them to acknowledge all sorts of milestones – getting married, births, birthdays, remembering someone who has died, acquiring hard-earned qualifications, and the list goes on. “Often it’s that people want to go through a process, and the process of commissioning a piece of jewellery is this really nice opportunity for expressing where you’re at in your life and what you want to mark and celebrate, and why.” In this way, Barb develops a certain intimacy with long-term clients who have returned over the years, relaying their significant stories and offering Barb a licence to interpret these narratives through the making of jewellery. “Even though we aren’t necessarily friends, there is a great trust and a great pleasure taken in other people’s lives, you know.”

“Often it’s that people want to go through a process, and the process of commissioning a piece of jewellery is this really nice opportunity for expressing where you’re at in your life and what you want to mark and celebrate, and why.”

“Clients inspire me,” says Barb. “They take me out of my rut… They might put concepts or colours together that I wouldn’t have dreamt of, and that’s really exciting. Or they come along at a time when I might have just tried something really exploratory, and they get it. And they want to make something with that process, or technique, or look. And that’s very exciting! That really validates what you’ve been doing…It’s like you’ve got a partner in arms on that project.”

TOP: Barb handles a piece from a tray in the 'GOMA cabinet' (more on this below). BOTTOM: A lift-out tray full of components, found objects and little curiosities that help inspire design ideas with clients who visit the studio.

Another source of inspiration for Barb are the trays that normally live within the ‘GOMA cabinet’. The cabinet is so-called as the only boutique design markets that Mal and Barb attend are the bi-annual Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) markets and they have this particular antique cabinet that always accompanies them – it has become somewhat infamous amid those familiar with the twosome! When the cabinet is at the markets it houses a display collection of ready-made pieces for potential customers to admire. Though in it's usual position back in the studio, it houses removable trays of components, found objects and little curiosities that help inspire ideas with clients who visit. What’s interesting about the items in these trays is their diversity. You'll find anything from a lavastone cameo, to a vintage plastic brooch, to a little beaded flower, to a pauau shell bird. As Barb picks out a few pieces to show us, she explains: “There’s no hierarchy of materials here – that might be the one thing that connects everything. It’s not about a material value. It’s more about the aesthetic intrigue, or maybe it’s a technique that I’d like to try one day.” She pauses, her eyes searching for a certain piece before landing on an unusual opal-eyed dog. “I love this kooky dog!”

“There’s no hierarchy of materials here – that might be the one thing that connects everything. It’s not about a material value. It’s more about the aesthetic intrigue.”

The day we visit, Barb is working on a client’s ring with a number of diamonds and a tanzanite, in a technique which she particularly loves that involves bedding all of the disparate sized and shaped diamonds down into the surface of the metal in a very chunky and raw kind of way. “The ring ends up looking a bit like a meteorite or something glistening – there’s not a particular structure to it – it’s kind of an amorphous shape with all the stones crushed into the surface. So that’s what is on the bench right now… But in my mind I’m thinking of some new work that I’d like to do when we’re away in Tassie,” says Barb (the couple are slowly renovating an old colonial shop in the southern isle). “This year I’m going to take a little kit of stuff that I can play with to make three dimensional things. I love textures and surfaces – disrupting surfaces and making organic and fabulous textures. Combining different gems and colours is endlessly fascinating and always evolving. I don’t think I have a naturally strong colour sense. I’ve always been stronger with form and texture. But I’m really interested in incorporating colour in a way that is stylish and successful, not just garish. I think that’s an interesting challenge for me.” 

LEFT: Barb in action at one of the workbenches. RIGHT: Barb setting some precious stones into a wax model of a ring.

Barb goes back to the workbench and I get chatting with Mal more about the couple's collections. Mal has collected many things over the years including a large art collection (he moved this on for various reasons; some of it is now with The University of Queensland Art Museum) and his printed design ephemera which remains in archives within their home and studio. I am somewhat uncertain about what collecting ephemera really means, so Mal clarifies for me: “Ephemera is something that’s produced and then used and later discarded. But designers generally like packaging, printed train tickets, concert tickets, badges or an old postcard, and will keep them. So the interesting thing about ephemera is that it might be here today and lost tomorrow, but designers will keep these things alive. I got into collecting ephemera as a designer’s resource – any designer that’s interested in the printed, graphic world will bring it to themselves, won’t they!? I’m just a visual hound!”

"I got into collecting ephemera as a designer's resource ... I'm just a visual hound!"

He tells me that his collection was mostly all acquired in the 60s, 70s, 80s and some of the 90s, before digital really took off! He digs around before locating a certain box in the nook off the studio. It’s full of cards. “So I’ll go and collect ‘Women’ postcards. Or I’ll collect ‘Men’. Or I’ll collect ‘Two women’. Or ‘Two Men’.” It all gets amazingly specific – one can’t help but be intrigued! Mal finds a box containing his collection of Vintage Australian stereoscopic cards. We take the box upstairs to locate the stereoscope to view them through. He tells me that Stereoview was popular between the 1850s to the 1930s as a mode of home entertainment – two photographs of the same scene were taken at slightly different angles from the same device, then mounted side-by-side on a card and viewed through a stereoscope as a three dimensional image. 

BOTTOM: Mal uses his Stereoscope to view his collection of vintage Australian Stereoscopic cards taken by Dr Hall, a colonial North Queensland doctor.

Back downstairs in the studio, housed in drawers in an antique chest along the back wall, Mal’s smaller collections could largely be generalised as historical, cultural objects and knick knacks. He pulls out different drawers and guides us through some of the eclectic contents. Of course, he has categorised them all! There’s the dental drawer, the bone drawer, the drawer full of old snuff boxes, the spoon drawer, and many more.

TOP: Pill boxes and trinkets. BOTTOM LEFT: Some bits from the bone, ivory and shell collection, including the thigh bone of a deer and a Georgian Apple Corer. BOTTOM RIGHT: Snuff boxes.

And frankly, they’re incredible. We could have poked through them for days admiring the exotic, vintage items; perhaps many of these items were mundane in their day, but they are wonderfully unique when viewed untethered from their intended contemporary and cultural contexts. Luckily for us, Mal is able to fill in most of the gaping holes in our knowledge: "So, this is the thigh bone of a deer. And this is a Georgian Apple corer. They're from the bone drawer. It's pretty diverse."

“So, this is the thigh bone of a deer. And this is a Georgian Apple Corer ... It’s pretty diverse.”

Mal generously allows us to explore the drawers, and for your viewing pleasure, our stylist Bianca tidily arranged some of the categories to highlight the treasures. 

LEFT & RIGHT: More bone, shell and ivory. Those little hands - so cute!

Infused with design skill, history and craftsmanship, the Jeweller to the Lost studio is an exciting creative space, and with their complementary skill sets Barb, Mal, and Juan make a truly unique team. 

Perhaps you are interested in a commission adventure with Barb, or some strategic communication, collections or design advice with Malcolm? In Brisbane, you can see a selection of ready-made Jeweller to the Lost pieces at the Artisan shop, as well as at the QAGOMA Store. In Hobart, you can see a selection of pieces at Handmark.