Adelaide Design Week
August saw Adelaide’s inaugural Design Week, from Monday the 18th to Sunday the 24th, venues around the city came alive with showings of new and innovative design work. From the outside it seemed like a resounding success for a city that appears first as small, but thanks to institutions like the Jam Factory, punches well above its weight in terms of national design presence.
It was a joy to be a part of the Jam Factory machine and see my new network of peers represented and holding their own as emerging designers alongside the heavyweights, with work that was at the same time pleasing and provoking. Each show included at least one - and often more - of our associate cohort. Personal highlights included the opening event which featured a huge range of Jam Factory current associates and Alumni such as Rashmi Subhudi, James Walker, Lèa Tarakdjian, Jake Rollins, Eden Wellings and others, seeing the work of Bindi Nimmo and Bolaji Teniola in situ at Adelaide Mansions Apartments as part of ‘Soft’ by Calum Hurley and Andy TT, Soda Objects beautiful space and well considered exhibition, and the brilliant curation of ‘In Collaboration With’ by Household Presents.
I was grateful to be able to show work as part of ‘In Collaboration With’ by Household Presents. The brief involved collaborating with another designer to make an object or utilizing multiple materials in a solo work.
I designed a light in collaboration with 3rd-generation wood turner Riley Stone. The blown glass shade continued my ongoing exploration of bubbled glass and all of its potential when applied to lighting. Working simply with clear glass and a trail of bubbles, I initially intended on making a simple, flattish circular form in order to let the subtle details of the bubbles do all the talking. As the glass was being blown it continued wanting to open out in an ovular shape, so instead of fighting it, I squashed it’s sides several times to further accentuate the oval.
Riley and I agreed the resulting shape, simplicity of the colourless glass and a desire for a subtle grain to match would lend itself well to a lighter wood fixture, and so we opted for Rock Maple as the material for the base.
Coming together to create this light was exciting for both of us and soon spurred a desire to continue collaborating. It has long been a plan of mine to develop an off-shoot production of concept lights, one-off pieces designed more as a demonstration of my continued studies into new ways to play with light, the result of this exhibition has become the first in this range.
I have created a new instagram account to document these concept lights and other designs, you can follow this here: https://www.instagram.com/onceinawhile.concepts/
‘WL01’, 2025
Blown Glass and Turned Rock Maple
Collaboration between Bradley East and Riley Stone
Created for ‘In Collaboration With’ by Household Presents for Adelaide Design Week
