Blackwood Satchel
EXHIBITED – By-Product, Melbourne Design Week 2021
This collaboration between woodworker Adam Markowitz and seamstress Alicia Aulsebrook intertwines these two craft traditions as a statement on the inherent environmental and social sustainability of craft practice. A single piece of blackwood, salvaged from workshop offcuts too small to be reused for furniture, has been hand shaped by woodworker Adam Markowitz into a curved arc designed to encompass the body. This curved arc forms a structural rib to support a pouch made by textile maker and seamstress Alicia Aulsebrook. The pouch has been naturally dyed using the waste blackwood shavings made through forming the timber component. The wrapped papercord element that binds the leather strap to the timber is a further acknowledgement of the strength of the hand in making items of longevity and quality.