Holiday time!
Any orders placed after today (11th Dec) will be made up and shipped in the new year. Happy holidays! We’re excited to be launching our first new product for a very long time in the new year… stay tuned.
Any orders placed after today (11th Dec) will be made up and shipped in the new year. Happy holidays! We’re excited to be launching our first new product for a very long time in the new year… stay tuned.
Some of the components in our website dated back to the beginnings of usethings in 2004 so it was well overdue for modernisation! We’ve had expert help to fix it after botching a major update. Looks like everything is working but let us know if you find any glitches. As part of the process we’ve
Part apology for late orders, but Mushroom orders have gone from our usual 3 or 4 a year to over 90 so far. Awesome isolation mending going on, we hope it keeps up! Sorry for all the other late orders, hand turned mushrooms are time consuming. This has been one of our busiest periods —
This turning off-cut made a quick repair for a melted pot lid handle. New life for this twenty year old pot which is a favorite for cooking rice because of its great seal. Many more meals out to come of this — another twenty years! Now with a bit more time there are a few
We’ve got to admit there is truth in this, my background in traditional shipbuilding left a fascination for rigging and pulleys that comes through in our drying rack. Dear Tim, belatedly a photo of your lovely rack in place. Thank you. It all feels very nautical in the hallway now. Have you ever read the
“Nautical” drying rack Read More »
Apologies for the delay and thanks for your patience. It took us a while to get the sleeves that cover the rods to protect clothes from tannin. We get these extruded and have to do at least a kilometer of them to make the setup worthwhile. We are now taking orders again.
Drying racks back in stock Read More »
We’ve just delivered a counter for the foyer of the Castlemaine Library and Phee Broadway Theater. The design includes a hydraulically raised half with shelf for theater ticket sales, locking internal section and a deep fronted lower counter for wheelchair access. The whole thing is on industrial wheels for mobility, flexibility is the key with
Library / theater counter Read More »
Visible mending: punk’s not dead, just patching itself up Visible mending places clothing at the centre of a protest movement. Gaye Naismith Emily Brayshaw, University of Technology Sydney Visible mending is a quiet, global protest movement that’s happening at a grass-roots level, challenging the way we consume clothing. “We don’t need to throw our clothes
Sometimes it all comes together. Here’s a photo of delivering a repaired Alien stool — an old usethings product sold locally about 9 years ago. First broken one we’ve come across. Delivery by bike, a 25+ year-old steel frame that has had numerous parts renewed in its long life. The Alien is an efficient
We love photo’s of our stuff installed, just got these from Jenny in NSW. Hello, This isn’t an order, it’s a thank you. In November we ordered two coat racks for our beach house JEST at Blueys Beach in NSW, which is now finished. I ordered them unfinished as I thought I’d paint them white.
JEST at Blueys Beach in NSW Read More »
Our friends over at Brave New Eco sent us some fantastic images from one of their projects that use our coat rack and drying rack. The bungalow up-cycle project is a 1950’s cream brick home in Melbourne’s North with a self contained granny-flat that had been built only 4 meters from the back of the
Our darning mushrooms are always a generous size compared to what is commonly available but this custom order is a monster 95mm diameter. Must be some big holes to mend! We make small items from production off-cuts to get the most out of the timber we use. This one is made from recycled and plantation
We made this 14 peg years ago and recently got this beautifully shot and styled photo from the customer with a request for another 14 peg. 12 peg 2m coat racks are the longest we can ship Australia-wide but for Central Victorian locals we can do 3m or over in a single length, depending on
There is a pair of jeans for every occasion. Krisana Antharith/Shutterstock Alice Payne, Queensland University of Technology and Susannah Kate Devitt, Queensland University of Technology Denim jeans – whether ripped, straight, flared, vintage or raw – are one of the world’s most-loved garments. But from fibre to wardrobe, they have a considerable ecological footprint. Given
Sustainable shopping: for eco-friendly jeans, stop washing them so often Read More »
We are very pleased to see a program on waste with broad appeal — ABS’s War on Waste with Craig Reucassel. We watched the episode on plastic bags and packaging last night, it certainly got the kids fired up. #waronwasteau Dealing with waste has been a long experiment for usethings as a manufacturer, working with
War on waste: usethings trench Read More »
Our coat rack can help reduce your environmental impact. From research for our drying rack we realised the impacts of washing and drying clothes: there is water, detergents and energy use of course, and now recently discovered is that the micro fibers shed during washing are ending up in our oceans. Do we need to
Micro-fibers from clothes washing Read More »
We’ve just reduced the price of the longer coat racks. The price-per-peg goes up slightly the longer the rack, as a decent long back-board is harder to come by than a shorter one. This pricing makes the shorter racks better value and uses up offcuts — part of our waste minimisation strategy. The pricing for
New coat rack pricing Read More »
We finally have a timber solution and have switched our online store drying rack to in-stock so they are now available to order again. Apologies for the slow resolution of this. Our material selection ideals caused us to persist in a search for plantation sugar gum — our preferred sustainable timber. With no success in finding a supplier we
Our flat rate shipping makes it affordable to buy our products in remote areas of Australia. We get orders from stations and communities in far flung places. This rack was ordered with extra wide spacing for Akubra hats — it’s got our imagination going, would love to see it in use!
We’ve begun works at the popular Castlemaine Cafe Saffs in late December and over the Christmas closure. First was the counter area with a new counter top in hoop pine ply. Also rationalising behind the counter with storage, work surface and shelf. Plus a bit of painting and patching. Deb brings her catering experience into the design of
Had a coatrack split while I was driving a peg in so had to cut it down. Sliced through the peg to look at the join.
Old friends of usethings will know we’ve talked about the Shaker design ethic and how it is one of our influences. The long lengths of coat racks that line the walls of Shaker meeting rooms were the inspiration for our coat rack design. Actually the Shaker aesthetic is important in all our design. Well we’ve just made a
Shaker inspired export! Read More »
Sara James, La Trobe University In March, 15,000 people attended the Lost Trades Fair in the country town of Kyneton, Victoria. Eighty rare trades were on show, including fletchers, bladesmiths, coopers and milliners. Common household items, such as knives and furniture, were on sale. These were hand-made and very high quality. But the point of
An urban workshop? Why office workers want to make ‘real’ things Read More »
Every now and then we get a beautiful commission. Clients from Musk in Victoria where after a coat stand and hadn’t been happy with anything they’d seen. We got chatting and offered to design one for them. It had to be stable and interesting but they where pretty open to how we resolved that brief.
Recent delivery of an All-ply table to Stephen Lumb Architect new office in Castlemaine.
In an effort to reduce our single use plastic we’ve got rid of packing tape and started using a kraft paper tape. This is the really nice stuff picture framers use. We already recycle cardboard boxes to pack our coat racks. This one is an awkward pack of 7, 5, and 4 peg racks. It’s
Plastic free packaging Read More »
Here’s usethings stamped under one of our Wobble Boards. These are made with production offcuts — sugar gum and small sections of the plantation Hoop Pine ply we use for other products. The elliptical shape makes them easier to store and the hand turned “wobble” underneath is gentler than most so you can actually balance on
Recent installation of our Floating Shelf. Made from plantation Hoop Pine plywood (E0) and features our box design that hides the fixings.
We found a small amount of 42 x 19mm sugar gum to use for the end frames but still no luck with the bigger stuff we need to make the rods from. So we’ve decided to use commercial dowel for the rods, this is Vic Ash and fine for the task. The reason we stopped
Drying racks available to order Read More »
A big order of 5 peg coat racks going off to Pinetree Lodge on Lord Howe Island. We recently did another big order for Clear Mountain Lodge & Spa in Queensland. Nice for the turnover but they keep clearing out our stock of recycled backboards!
Coat racks shipping out Read More »
The branching of a millet stalk makes it ideal for a broom. No plastic fibre can give this density of finer fibres at the end; branching out of the stem; with good stiffness for sweeping. Millet is a strong and durable fibre and doesn’t leave plastic particles as it degrades with abrasion; millet particles will
An excerpt from: LOW-TECH LIVING AS A ‘DEMAND-SIDE’ RESPONSE TO CLIMATE CHANGE AND PEAK OIL. SIMPLICITY IS THE ULTIMATE SOPHISTICATION Samuel Alexander and Paul Yacoumis Simplicity Institute Report 15d, 2015 3.4 Drying clothes The conventional way to dry clothes is to use an electric clothes dryer, which is very energy-intensive. A low-tech alternative is to use
Radical clothes drying Read More »
In the mindful processes of the workshop and working with wood, small wonders are revealed. The secrets of trees are exposed by our mechanical disruption of them: felled, milled, dried, machined, then brought into application somewhere. In the case of our coat racks after this first application it is collected and machined again, so whole histories
The secrets of a tree Read More »
Made up some custom sized bamboo boards yesterday, our standard rectangular size is 250 x 200mm a handy small size but we do other sizes by request. We make them from 18mm thick laminated bamboo for a solid and durable board and the glue is non-toxic. The design features a hole in the corner to
Bamboo cutting / serving boards Read More »
We’ve stocked Opinel knives for a few years now, we love the simplicity and, of course, good steel. Opinel have recently updated their kitchen knife wooden handle designs with simplified, finer lines. I actually liked the old bread knife handle for it’s heft but these new handles, though finer, are long enough to get good purchase
Opinel kitchen knife range, new handles Read More »
A give-away from Green Lifestyle Magazine, go to this page to enter: http://www.greenlifestylemag.com.au/win-a-usethings-drying-rack
Win one of our drying racks from Green Lifestyle Magazine Read More »
Our coat rack sales have been growing over the last three years; they’ve now become our leading product. So I spend a lot of time hammering pegs into their deep and close fitting sockets. Heaps strong even without the glue. Small detail — the grain on the pegs is always vertical which is the strongest axis
We are getting so many orders for darning mushrooms at the moment I’m having to work this fast. Some pieces of wood are stunning when you machine them, this wavy-grained sugar gum is just burnished on the lathe with no waxes or oil finishes, keeping it dry and smooth to run a needle over (sugar gum
Turning a darning mushroom Read More »
I’ve come to the realisation that as a maker and a small business we tend not to carry much stock so the things we make are more like a repertoire: the designs are resolved along with the supply, production, and distribution so we make things up on demand. Making it up as we go along kind of
Stock Vs Repertoire Read More »
Selling a lot of our darning mushrooms at the moment. One thing about repetition — if you pay attention there are things to learn. After making these for years I just came up with a new process for finishing the underside. This last one was the best I’ve made.
We are a finalist in the sustainability category at the Mount Alexander Business Awards, winner announced tonight at the Castlemaine Art Gallery.
usethings finalist in business awards Read More »
Finally got around to making this installation guide for our coat racks. This clip shows how to install on a stud wall. There is also detail on timber plugs to cover the screw heads: how to setup for them, finish them, and how to get them out if anything goes wrong. Our racks can
Installation of a coat rack Read More »
Here’s the latest All-ply table for clients in Castlemaine. Designed for the kids to draw on; the furniture linoleum will easily handle extreme conditions (kids + furniture). This one is 1800 x 600mm and features an open shelf underneath, and idea we will continue to develop. I feel fortunate and happy to be living with one of
All-ply table — kids drawing space Read More »
A film about the future, Deb heard about this film as she is working with Dominique Hess on the Bull St Terraces — Crosby Architects. The Regenerates from Phlogiston Creative Industries on Vimeo.
In the spirit of the Castlmaine Festival currently on in town, we’ve done something fun at our store. If you are passing 8 Templeton Street at night this week you’ll see.
usethings festival Read More »
If you are having problems with the shipping part of our checkout just email and we can process your order. We are in the process of reseting our online store for customer location based shipping rates. This will incorporate an Australia Post calculator for local and international deliveries of small items. The big stuff will still go by courier and
We’ve changed the design of our gumboot stand to make it more compact and also to use 16mm sugar gum dowels with rounded ends — offcuts from our drying rack production. The heavy recycled hardwood base for the 4 pair stand is 800mm long. Store / air / dry your gumboots on our weather proof rack,
Gumboot stand update & price drop Read More »
John Reid from RedBeard, our baker-at-large, found Alians at the Summersalt Festival in Melbourne.
Aliens at Summersalt Read More »
We are down at our favourite bakery RedBeard again. February is their time-out / maintenance period, and usehtings is assisting with a rejig and freshen up. Great to see how the major refit we did a couple of years ago is standing up. Part of this years work was designing and making a fly screen door for the high-traffic
Screen door for Redbeard Read More »
This array of beautiful paper cranes at our store are by Una Mitchell, the colours fly in our light filled room. summer light in planes from one dimension to three fly paper cranes
Paper cranes at our store Read More »
Drop by our showroom in Castlemaine to see our workstool. This design is the result of a years long research and prototyping process aimed at addressing the effects on our bodies of seated work. We explain more in the article “how to sit”. We’ve got one in the store now so try it out and we’ll
Work stool at usethings store Read More »
During January and February we’ll be away at various times so our showroom — usethings store in Castlemaine opening times will be erratic. We will be in town mostly so can open by appointment any day, call on 0405 564 206 to see if we are around and make a time. We will be filling
Holidays — usethings showroom opening times Read More »
A special order for our friends at Redbeard Bakery.
Bamboo serving boards Read More »
usethings friends will know how seldom we introduce a new product. It’s our selection criteria, there aren’t many things out there that meet our expectations. We are excited today to receive our first order of hand made millet brooms from the Tumut Broom Factory, who have been making brooms in Australia since 1946. We love
Millet brooms, new usething Read More »
Just found out our shopping cart hasn’t been working in the mobile version of our website (thanks Cathy). The whole mobile thing was all very exciting a couple of years ago when we set it up. We used a third party service that re-rendered our desktop site and it kind of worked but struggled with tricky stuff
Killed the mobile site Read More »
The fun part of being a designer-maker: prototyping. This is a test of the jig and cold laminating hardwood. Timber is amazing in what it can do, here thin strips are glued together and clamped in a jig to form a curved piece that is part of a new design. Experience building ships and boats
Bent things: laminating timber Read More »
We made up some special bamboo cutting boards for a long table meal featuring local food at The Village in Edinburgh Gardens, Fitzroy Melbourne recently. They where used to serve the lamb and impressed people at the meal so we thought we’d offer them up as a product; a handy compliment to our large round
8 x 10 cutting / serving board Read More »
We are pleased to see our electricity provider ranked best in this green power guide from the Total Environment Centre and Greenpeace. Have a look at: greenelectricityguide.org.au We think Powershop are cool because of their position on the RET, and the neat energy usage graphing they supply, shows when your peak usage during the day. You can
Environmentally savvy Australian carpet company Above Left recently redirected over 3000 square meters of carpet tile away from landfill with their rEcover program, which is designed to deal with carpet waste from office re-fits. This is a Product Stewardship program that they also apply to other makers products, i.e. taking back all brands of carpet not just their own. See
Reusing carpet through rEcover: fit-out waste management Read More »
We recently completed a commissioned bed-base featuring Blackwood and recycled timbers. The bed was designed with the clients and has a neat base setup that gives it a floating look; handy for a big bed as it doesn’t overcrowd the room. The wing shelves attach to the base which further minimises the impact on floorspace. It’s designed in three parts which
Commissioned bed-base Read More »
Green Lifestyle Awards where announced last night in Sydney. Our clothes drying rack got a highly commended in the home product category. See the other awards here. Pleased to see David Holmgren was inducted into the hall of fame, if you ever have a chance to hear him speak he has a powerful and inspiring holistic
Green Lifestyle Awards: our drying rack highly commended Read More »
We’ve just got in a couple of new pieces from local maker Greg Stirling. A Windsor carver chair and another cricket table. Beautiful structures both, and the chair is surprisingly comfortable — upholstery looks inviting but we are into firm seats after our research on sitting and the body. The long design heritage / evolution of the Windsor
New in store from Greg Stirling Read More »
We use recycled building timbers for our coat rack, usually Vic Ash or Messmate, but we take any sound hardwood and reveal its beauty by machining it for the coat racks. Here are some of the colours and features in a recent batch of orders. These have been oiled and are photographed in shaded daylight;
Coat rack recycled timbers Read More »
By Robert Nelson, Monash University Since Marcel Breuer’s Wassily Chair of 1925 the formula for comfortable seating has been known: create a right-angle, open it up a tad, and tip it backward, so that the seat places the bottom lower than the knees. Your weight is thrown back into the angle and your thighs lock
Are you sitting comfortably? Why good furniture helps sustainability Read More »
Another project with our friends at bluebottle; they used our updated Work-stool and Aliens in this recent interior: bluebottle is a Melbourne based design company with expertise in combining light and form in inventive ways. The bluebottle team is accomplished in managing all aspects of a project to achieve an excellent outcome. Company members work across various
usethings stools at bluebottle interior Read More »
We’ve just signed the Castlemaine Divestment Action pledge, a charter focusing action on investment in carbon intensive industries. We have recently changed our electricity supplier to Powershop, the only retailer that doesn’t want the RET reduced or scrapped. For many years we’ve chosen banks based on their ethical position and currently bank with MECU. Supper is
The last rays of a beautiful day in Castlemaine. Thanks to all those who dropped by for drinks or sent messages. It was a lovely gathering: chilled Champaign, good conversation with our friends in the beautiful garden at No 8, even the kids found a ball and disappeared to play street soccer.
Tenth birthday drinks Read More »
Come along to help us celebrate usethings tenth year, drinks at usethings store, 8 Templeton St Castlemaine from 5 to 6pm tomorrow Friday 29th.
Birthday drinks at usethings store Friday Read More »
We’ve recently up-dated our Work-stool and written more on the design and ergonomics of sitting, see our how to sit page. The new version features a fine stainless steel leg brace to ensure the Work-stools long life. In our how to sit page we better describe and illustrate the design of this stool and how it
How to sit well: usethings Work-stool Read More »
Simon in Melbourne installed a couple of our racks; he had a hard time fixing to a hard plastered masonry wall which is pretty tricky. Simon sent us this great image. “ …I put them up on the weekend – look great, extremely happy with outcome but had to use some additional fixings as the hard plastered
Homes + featured our coat racks in a shoot for their page 12 DIY ideas.
Coat racks in new magazine Read More »
New images for our darning mushroom, get those repairs done now while the winter inspiration is there! Hand turned in Castlemaine and made from plantation Sugar-gum. Features a needle store in the hollow handle.
We’ve been getting a lot of social media interest in our laser cut plywood flat-pack stool so we thought we’d repost about them. Our Alien stool is designed for efficient use of materials; ten Aliens come from one standard sheet of plywood. This is achieved by the careful geometry of the ‘nested’ parts—leg sections sit
Alien flat-pack stool Read More »
Our patience for social media fluctuates, but this one looks like it might be a fun and a creative output. To be honest as designers and visual people we both often only look at the pictures! Click on this icon to go to our Instagram page and watch us flail with yet another new media!
usethings on Instagram Read More »
“Just a word of thanks for the clothes rack which Tim installed for us in Maldon recently. During these cold wet days it must have saved us many dollars, and the country a small amount of carbon emmissions in power not used on a dryer. It truly works brilliantly using all that spare heat near
To celebrate the decade usethings has been making and selling useful things, we are offering prizes to our past customers. We send out our products and often wonder what sort of life they have in their new homes. We’d love to see or hear about your usethings installation. There are two prizes, one for the
Celebration gift voucher for image or story Read More »
“By cutting the dryer out of the equation–even if it’s only part of the time–you’ll save even more money. Your dryer checks in at number two on the list of household energy hogs (right after your fridge), costing the average household more than $96 per year in energy, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. So
Green your laundry Read More »
In the workshop today: images of a 4m / 24 peg coat rack (pictured un-oiled), this one is Vic Ash. It’s made from two 2m lengths as it is going to Sydney and 2m is the maximum our courier will carry. The close-up below shows the butt join and we’ve carefully matched the grain in the two
Four metre coat rack Read More »
We’ve got a new Greg Stirling piece in our Castlemaine store. This is a three seat settee in Ash with a beautiful blackened finish. If you haven’t tried sitting in one of Greg’s chairs drop by and get a feel for the comfort of sitting in a hand crafted chair.
Windsor Settee from Greg Stirling Read More »
Despite the grey weather we had quite a few visitors to our castlemaine store today. After many requests we’ll be offering our hanging jar displays for sale, made from an old Fowlers jar, hemp rope and a plywood hook. We finally found a supply of good hemp rope which is not easy to come by.
Winter at the store Read More »
We don’t add a new product from other makers very often, there are few things that resonate with usethings ideals — beautiful and useful things. So this one caught or attention recently, a simple device to extend worn-down pencils so you can keep using them till the last, much much better than throwing them out
Don’t throw out short pencils Read More »