by Bonnie Alter, London
Design & Architecture
First spotted at the Clerkenwell Design Festival, Made in Peckham furniture turns out to be the work of a creative design studio called Hendzel and Hunt who take an experimental approach to their furniture design.
Hendzel and Hunt make all of their tables, cabinets and chairs out of wood found in their little ‘hood in south London. To add to the fun, recently they held a 24-hour design challenge amongst friends: create a gramophone from locally sourced bits and bobs that would play a record. Here are the results.
The machine had to be made out of locally sourced materials that the team had to dig up and it had to be truly mechanical and capable of playing a record: “Two Cigarettes in the Dark”. Aesthetics and craftsmanship were equally important. Each group of entrants was supplied with a gramophone needle, test record and £30 budget for incidentals.
“It’s Bin a Long Time” was created from a garbage can (a bin). Usually it’s the record that spins, but in this case they decided to keep the record static and have everything else spin around. The centrifugal force of the bin spinning moves the needle and the motion of the bin’s spinning is hand-activated.
“The Singer” starts from the discovery of an old Singer sewing machine base and foot pedal. The foot pedal was to be used to power it. An old door was used as a table top and table and chair legs for the headphones’ support.
“The Duchess of Peckham” was inspired by an abandoned hat maker’s studio. They used felt to sit the record and an old hat box for the horn. The base was an old stool from a friend’s attic and the mechanism is an old clock which was altered.
The other two entrants were equally inventive: the French Orchestra and the Portable One. Definitely a design company to watch.


Photos: madeinpeckham
(Source: www.treehugger.com )