Lauren Lea Haynes is not your average student. With limestone sculpting, furniture design and uni study on her plate, she has to be extra disciplined when carving up her time.
‘I set aside three days a week for working on my limestone and 1-2 days for furniture design work at home,’ she says. ‘Alongside two days a week at uni.’ This stamina and dedication is both astounding and admirable for a single person, but totally explains Lauren’s superhuman creative output!
The time at her shared studio space in Coburg is spent making her monolithic limestone sculptures by hand (no power tools here!), where Lauren is surrounded by other makers and slow-furniture enthusiasts.
Her furniture designs are less hands-on, but still require a lot of work using computer programs to translate all her ideas from hand-drawn sketches into a workable finished product. Once the designs are refined, Lauren collaborates with local fabricators to bring the pieces to life. One of these partners is Kacy Heywood of fashion label Ka-He, who does all the upholstery for her ‘Desert Pea’ chairs.
Inspired by the organic forms and bright, vibrant colours typical of Verner Panton’s ’70s-era designs, Lauren credits classic design theory and native Australian florals as aesthetic influences. This is most notable in the ‘Foli’ collection – a range of powder coated tables made from steel and aluminium with undulating, corrugated edging, which summon the shape of a flower in bloom.
The prototypes for both the ‘Foli’ collection and the ‘Desert Pea’ chair were made with the guidance and collaborative power of Tilly Barber (the head designer and local vintage furniture-sources of Monde Studio – watch this space for her home tour on TDF soon!), but it was Lauren’s stroke of brilliance to bring all the elements of her professional creativity cohesively together.
In terms of getting your hands on one of Lauren’s excellent designs, she plans to set up an online store in the near future. But for now, she’s taking commissions via email, which can be found on her website.
‘I really like the intimacy and joy of talking people interested in my work,’ she says. No doubt her work brings joy to many others, too!
Keep up to date with Lauren’s latest endeavours and experiments on Instagram here.
