LINDA FREDHEIM

“I seek to design and make furniture pieces that have a quiet presence - objects that don’t demand attention, but invite interaction with the viewer through the exploration of the details of the piece.”

Linda has always been good at making things. She attributes this to growing up in a family of practical people who, when they couldn't find exactly what was needed, would have a go at making it themselves.

25 years ago, Linda started woodwork classes in order to develop the woodworking skills she needed to renovate her house.  It was around this time she attended a slide presentation by Kristina Madsen, a visiting American furniture maker and artist-in-residence at the University of Tasmania. Linda was so inspired by the images of furniture and objects that Kristina and her female colleagues had designed and made, that Linda enrolled the following year at the Tasmanian School of Art, University of Tasmania, in a fine arts degree majoring in Design-in-Wood.

Since completing her degree Linda has run her own practice from a studio shared with her partner, Stuart Houghton.  The work is varied and includes

commissions and exhibition pieces; designs for manufacture; collaborations with other artists and designers and managing design projects; and more recently, teaching and mentoring.

Linda has exhibited in numerous group exhibitions both nationally and internationally. Her pieces have been acquired by the Tasmanian Wood Design Collection and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart. Linda was both a finalist for the Tasmanian Design Award in 2009 for her ‘I am…Brooch’ and for the Clarence Prize for Excellence in Furniture Design, Hobart in 2011 for her piece, ‘Lona’.

“I find designing and making furniture to be deeply satisfying, as the design process allows you to solve practical problems of how we live and I also enjoy the actual process of creating the piece. My primary interest in furniture design is in the way we use furniture for storage and collecting, and I have a particular obsession with designing and making cabinets and drawers.  I find Japanese Tansu, campaign furniture and Shaker pieces to be an endless source of inspiration.”

The Product

LVL Console 2
The design for this console was developed to utilize laminated veneer lumber (LVL), a timber product being developed by Forestry Tasmania. LVL is processed from young timber i.e. the thinnings from plantations, to produce sections of stable timber that would normally only be available from very large and old trees. Like many designers, my practice is informed by issues of sustainability. Locally sourced and processed materials have the lowest carbon footprint, and timber not only stores carbon, it doesn’t require a great deal of energy in the production process.