The range of products we designed and supplied included; full height bar stools, standard height stools, pendant lights, square and round Oak tabletops and a large round communal table.

Working with the guys from ‘Arkibar’, we created a carefully considered collection of furniture to suite both the restaurant’s style and the day-to-day function of the space.

If you’re ever in the South Melbourne area, pop in to check out the beautifully designed interior and maybe more importantly, for a seriously delicious Italian feed.

“INDEX is the graduate show of unique work from a group of individuals each pursuing their own design trajectory, offering insight into contemporary concerns and ideas generated through a range of projects related to the practice of Interior Design. The final year of the program is a self-directed investigation and INDEX is an opportunity to celebrate the hard work produced by the graduating class over the year. It is an event that attracts wide support and attention from the local design community.”

 This is what we donated:

The thoughts behind the creation of a cube, is purely to showcase the lovely/beautiful/decorative/rare material. Previously the slab had been stored for 10+ years in a shed, covered in dust and out of sight. After using the majority of the slab to create a side table, a skateboard and a pendant lamp, we had no need or want for the remaining material/offcuts and it would have been a real shame to put it back into storage/isolation.

The cube is a beautiful object (namely because of the material), but also it serves its purpose well and that is to avoid being stored as raw material, instead it became an ornament and all the while being 100% reusable, with future potential. It may occupy a mantelpiece, a coffee table or anywhere really for an indefinite period, but when there is a purpose or re-purpose for it, it can easily be seen as lumber again and be used, maybe to be turned into a bowl or to be cut into decorative furniture legs or to be cut into veneer etc.

There was talk of making a chopping board with the Huon Pine offcuts and yes; this would have been the functional option. But would a chopping board have celebrated the material as much as a cube or would it have been anywhere near as interesting?

• The Huon pine is Australia’s oldest living tree and is one of the oldest living organisms on earth. Individuals have been known to reach an age of 3,000 years. Fossil records from a tree found in the south-west of Tasmania were dated at 3,462 years. (Carder A., 1995). Only the bristle-cone pine of North America exceeds it in age.
• The Huon pine grows at the incredibly slow rate of between 0.3 – 2 mm per year in diameter. Despite such slow growth the tree may attain heights of 40 m and commonly reaches 20 m to 25 m in height.

The product is not of my design, rather chosen by the client, however the process of working with Huon Pine was a real treat and it definitely lived up to hype (created by my own mind) of such a luxury timber.

The deck is made up of an outer skin of Huon Pine, with a Canadian Maple core, finished with a clear coat of hard wax oil. The board currently has no grip tape on it, however if the owner ever did want to put the board to work, there is both clear contact grip tape and clear aerosol spray grip available on the market, easily applied, making them two ideal options to retain the top face while making the board functional.

I’ve searched and searched the Internet in hope to find another Huon Pine Skateboard, maybe it’s because of the timbers precious/expensive nature, but I can’t seem to find another one like it.

Is this the first and maybe only Huon Pine deck? Get in contact if you know of another.

Aim for the chopping block. If you aim for the wood, you will have nothing. Aim past the wood, aim through the wood; aim for the chopping block. Annie Dillard

Solution: Organise a gathering. Scout Hall Table, 3 meters x 750mm x 750mm.

We provide an affordable workshop environment, setup for industrial making and experimentation in modern manufacturing techniques. Handsome & Co will provide a creative and safety conscious environment, with the provision of equipment intrinsic to the manufacture of quality products. This type of workspace will allow novice designer / makers to turn skills acquired from study and training into industry applications.

The fully equipped workshop provides ease and convenience for students, machines are maintained sharp, tuned and presented ready for use. Our workshop facilities include workbenches and hand tools for each student and a separate machine room with all equipment required for the production quality furniture.

Handsome & Co seeks out and employs tutors that are professional designer/makers, who are currently engaged in their own creative practices. These tutors will bring a wealth of extensive technical knowledge in the methods and application of traditional and modern woodwork techniques. Most importantly, our tutors are role models, who can inspire students through their active industry practice.

Our tutors will provide demonstrations and knowledge in timber and traditional technique, but most importantly our tutors act as the vehicle to influence their student’s exploration of materials, ideas and processes.

Welcoming applications from anyone wishing to develop their skills in design and furniture making, previous woodworking experience is not essential, however the success in fine woodworking does require patience and an attention to detail.

read more here: Handsome & Co

This stepladder, made with Mountain Ash, is a unique commission piece designed as a gift for a ‘sweetheart’.

“I try to give my sweetheart a commissioned work for her birthday each year…in order to give some meaning to gifts.”

The brief requested a snake reference, which I pondered for some time, considering things like the application of snake like textures, colour and even form. I adopted a more lateral solution, in that the structural shape of the library ladder spells out the word snake.

“She is afraid of snakes and there are plenty about in the garden and paddocks – the snake reference adds an amulet quality. One day she shot one that threatened her in the dairy and all these babies came out… gross! Apparently many cool climate snakes have live young”

The function of a step / library ladder is primarily to obtain things from a height. However, in a gift context it could quite possibly lend itself to the pretense of a pedestal and subsequently, romance. Through this pedestal-like function, the user is given opportunity to stand at height, symbolically taking the position of high regard or being adored. Its gift context is accentuated and reiterated through the application of text, that runs vertical along the stand / handrail reading; ‘ for my Sweetheart…’.

Lastly, the ladder offers a point where a lamp can be hung. Whether utilised in a library context, or placed in a living room corner, its secondary function provides a reading light for those perched on the highest rung with a book or placed as lamp in the corner of a room, and therefore regular use, as its ladder function is possibly infrequent.

A ladder for your sweetheart in order to revere them all the better.

“The practice of putting women on pedestals began to die out when it was discovered that they could give orders better from there” Betty Grable