Heath Nash

Heath Nash

Background

¢  Heath is the Owner/Designer: of Heath Nash cc, Cape Town

¢  Born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

¢  Heath Nash is a graduate of the University of Cape Town

¢  He completed his B.A. Fine Art majoring in sculpture in 1999

¢  He is hoping to do his Masters’ Degree in Design in the future

Awards

¢  South African Designer of the Year 2008

¢   Heath was named as the 2006 Elle Decoration South Africa Designer of the Year for his “treasures from trash” exhibition

Heath has also just been appointed the SA Creative Entrepreneur of the Year - a British council initiative

Characteristics

—  Recycles scrap into beauty

—  Lightshades, light fittings, floor surfaces, candle holders and kitchen accessories

—  Made from materials that would otherwise end up in a landfill.

—  Create employment opportunities, uses local labour

—  He produces recycled functional items

—  His designs are very reasonably priced at approximately R250+

—  White, organic, leafy light fittings

—  Also creates multi-coloured flower petals

—  "I am trying to make it possible to re-use this kind of plastic straight away and take it to a sophisticated level."

—  His work draws on the local craft tradition of using recycled plastic bottles and other objects to make new objects.

—  He creates items for the house

—  Most of his works are very modular.  “ I like to make smaller units that make up a bigger whole. It is like drawing lots of small lines which eventually add up to a circle.”

—  Beautiful lamps out of recycled plastic bottles and caps

He undertakes the journey from nature to industrialization

—  Q: The world is already full of 'stuff' – as a designer, why do you choose to create more?
A: That's a large part of why I like the re-use angle I'm currently working with - the fact that I get to use up some of the 'stuff' that we have so much of, and hopefully take away from the waste instead of adding more stuff  to the pile. I also like the idea of creating 'luxury' items that aren't part of the general consumer throw-away culture we all live in now... by making things that have a sense of longevity and value.

—  He manages to recycle empty bottles to perfectly crisp precious objects

—  Everything is handmade and individual

—  The premise is to use our available resources – people, a culture of wire working, and scrap

Materials and Technique (Process)

¢  In the beginning his work, was based on sheets of paper and plastic folded to objects such as lampshades and greeting cards

¢  “I had a bit of an origami meets Swedish feel to it, but nothing really showed that it was made in Africa.”

¢  He met Richard Mondongwe at a crafts market making these plastic flowers

¢  He thought that by using wire and plastic, combined with the skills of traditional crafters, he would create a contemporary design.

¢  His initial designs were stunningly folded objects with dye cut elements

¢  Now his designs are combined with Richard’s wirework techniques

¢  His collection of lampshades and other handcrafted lifestyle products show his experiments with ‘craft techniques’

¢  Materials: plastic containers such as milk cartons and detergent containers

¢  It is difficult for Nash to get coloured plastic, that is why the white lights are much easier to do.

¢  There is never a shortage of milk bottles, but he struggles to get enough see-through purple or blue plastic

¢  Nash uses local labour and traditional craftsmanship

¢  He wants to discover and teach skills to South African people

¢  Lamps are made out of recycled plastic bottles and caps

¢  He would like to keep his manufacturing local

¢  Richard Mondongwe is now his factory supervisor and leading craftsmen

¢  According to Nash, Richard is very good at wirework and Richard’s wife also works with him

¢  The wirework involved in the lamp making process is also a local skill that is used in his studio, where all the bottles are carefully sorted, washed and dried.

¢  He produces new light fitting designs that moved away from the plain white

¢  For a muted orange-brown light he used ex-Stoney Ginger beer bottles

Process

¢  1. First it is trying to get the plastic

¢  Located some nice collection points

¢  White and colorful bottles are gathered from recycling centers or simply picked up from the streets

¢  2. The bottles he gets are all dirty, so he takes them to his studio, and rinses, cleans and washes them and then hang them up until they are dry and clean.

¢  3. Then he cuts the handle and the bottom off, so they transform to a plastic sheet.

¢  4. He and his employees punch leaves out with a hammer and a blade attached to a piece of wood.

¢  His employee, Landela often punches out and corrects the small plastic flowers

1.       Each leaf has little crease lines on it and each leaf is then to be creased by hand, basically creating little veins.

Process

¢  6. While this is happening, Richard and Landela make the wire components.

¢  Juliet also creases each flower by hand

¢  7. Then the leaves get strapped onto the wires. From these either a wall or a screen or a cylinder is built

¢  Recycled material designs are very expensive to make, because it is a very time consuming process. Just

¢  The full color flower ball for example is something he only sells outside of Africa, to people who understand that some things are worth paying a lot for. It is more of a high end product right now.