Women Designers Use Recycled Materials at Melbourne Design Week
Four Australian artists are exhibiting furniture made from discarded bicycle tyres and timber offcuts during Melbourne Design Week. Their works combine circular-economy practices with traditional woodworking techniques.
Four women furniture makers are presenting pieces constructed from recycled bicycle tyres and timber waste at Melbourne Design Week, which continues until May 24. Isabel Avendaño-Hazbún has created an upholstery material from rubber bicycle tyres collected from local bike shops.
She threads the material through Tasmanian oak and Victorian ash chairs using a handwoven technique based on nautical knots.
Humpston builds side tables and coffee tables from timber offcuts. Her Ballast coffee table uses celery top pine and a travertine base with interlocking joints that require no glue. Georgie Szymanski works from her Preston studio on pieces such as the Light Chair, which draws on Gio Ponti’s 1951 Leggera design.
She is also producing a second iteration of the chair using Tasmanian Blackwood offcuts.
Mahon records machinery sounds from Avendaño-Hazbún’s studio to create an accompanying soundscape. Mahon has made custom furniture since 2006 and collaborates with Avendaño-Hazbún through the Victorian Woodworkers Association. The exhibition at Craft Victoria forms part of the Future Ambition program and the 100 Chairs show during Melbourne Design Week.
