By/Product 2025

The By/Product series challenges Australian makers and designers to repurpose discarded materials into collectable furniture, art and craft.

The aim of the series is to highlight the value of raw materials and to recognise the threat of material scarcity on designers, artists and makers, and associated impacts on their artistic and commercial outcomes. Through this process, designers and makers work to rebuild structure, redefine aesthetic appeal and reinstate value in otherwise discarded materials.

With a particular focus on minimal intervention and sustainable practices, Locki presents a range of furniture and objects that can be assembled and disassembled for ongoing repair and re-use.

For the third By/Product iteration, artist and furniture maker Locki Humphrey presents Oxide, a collection featuring a lamp, occasional chair, shelving, coffee table and wall work. The works are constructed from remnants of industrial manufacturing, including discarded steel and textile waste; the timber is stained with iron oxide derived from metal waste. Humphrey explores the production waste from the prickly pear tree – an abundant invasive species and identified as one of Australia's worst weeds of national significance – using the by-product from fruit harvesting to produce a sustainable leather alternative.

“We can live in a world where objects are celebrated for their beauty as well as their flexibility, their ability to be pulled apart and transformed into something else. We can begin to understand objects as only one iteration of an assemblage of materials, knowing it’s part of a larger life cycle, where each component has a history and a future.” – Locki Humphrey

By/Product forms part Conscious Craft  – a movement to redefine our relationship with materials in a considered, responsible and responsive way.