Eco Wood Design · K Bowls

Tesselating timber 'K Bowls' by Stephen Ziguras of Eco Wood Design. Above - the 'Kurv' bowl in Forest green.

Tesselating timber 'K Bowls' by Stephen Ziguras of Eco Wood Design. Above - the 'Kurv' bowl in Sky blue.

Melbourne based Stephen Ziguras came to launch his design business in a roundabout way, having first trained as a social worker, and led a varied career spanning community work, academic research, policy analysis, and most recently, a stint as a Ministerial adviser!  Stephen says despite his seemingly very 'left brain' career history, he's always been interested in design, and alongside these various day jobs, he has been a part-time woodworker for the last 15 years. In 2010, Stephen and his partner Jenny moved to Denmark, so Jenny could take up an academic position at Roskilde University, near Copenhagen. 'I was very excited to be moving to Copenhagen, the source of so much inspirational furniture and design' says Stephen. His design business, Eco Wood, began here, in 2011, when Stephen set up a woodwork studio in an old workshop near the couple's Copenhagen apartment. 'I started to get more work, so eventually I set up my own business - that’s where Eco Wood Design began' he says. When the couple finally came back to Melbourne in 2013, Stephen decided to stick to design and furniture-making. Eco Wood Design found a new home in Australia. We love these striking handcrafted timber 'K Bowls' developed by Stephen.  Their geometric forms are based on the idea of an interlocking pattern of tiles, inspired by Copenhagen's Teglgårdstræde ('Tileyard Street'), where Stephen's studio was located during his time in Denmark.  In fact, the first piece in this series is named the Tegl Bowl (Danish for ‘tile’).  The bowls themselves are constructed by Stephen from small timber offcuts accumulated over many years of furniture making. 'I’d been pondering how to use these offcuts, and the idea of a faceted bowl developed from there' he explains. 'I had a vague idea of a form, but it took lots of research to find the shapes which would work' says Stephen of the development process for his bowls. After creating over 40 prototypes using different materials, glues, clamping methods and finishes, the final designs were realised last year.  Stephen has received excellent encouragement and support from a handful of great local retailers - Carmel McKie at Craft and Pat Coppel at Make Designed Objects have both passed on advice about colours, sizes, and pricing to assist Stephen to get his designs to market! The K Bowls are priced from $179 to $249, and are available through Stephen's online shop, and at Craft, Make Designed Objects and Melbournalia.

Handcrated timber 'K Bowls' by Stephen Ziguras of Eco Wood Design. Above - the 'Kurv' bowl in Sky blue.  Above - the 'Seks' bowl in Mondrian.

Handcrated timber 'K Bowls' by Stephen Ziguras of Eco Wood Design. Above - the 'Kurv' bowl in Sky blue.  Above - the 'Tegl' bowl in Mondrian.