There are some of us who throw things out when they’re broken and there are others, like Moira Norwood who puts them in an oven on low and gives them new life. If you’re a record collector, we must warn you that what you’re about to see may disturb and haunt you. However, for everyone else, we’ve discovered a girl who can make a bowl out of Burt Bacharach.
 

Would you call yourself a designer?
I’m not really a designer. I’m just someone who gets bored, gets an idea in their head and then makes it…I guess.
 

 

When did you first look at a vinyl record and think, “I can make a bowl out of that”?
I’ve been doing it for about three years or so. It was my mum who was telling me that she left her records in the back of the car one day and they went all floppy, they sort of warped. Then she told me how she tried to iron them flat and I thought, “well you could probably melt it and manipulate it and make something out of it, if it warps that easy in the sun”.
 

Describe the process.
I get records from Op-Shops and places like that. I choose them for their brightly-coloured centres, just because they look better against the black. Then I turn on the oven, to whatever degrees, I never really check. You place the record on a baking tray with wax-proof paper so it doesn’t stick. When it starts to melt and get all floppy, pull it out and place it over an old bowl, a heat-proof bowl, and press the centre down. You’ll pick it up and it’ll be all floppy. The hardest thing is keeping the record’s shape from the oven to the bowl because if you pick it up from one end it’ll droop. I’ve burnt my fingers so many times. Leave that to cool for a couple of minutes in the bowl, then pull it out and place it on a cooling rack.
 

Do you see a lot around you, things that could become other things?
I guess every time I buy clothes I think, “how could I modify that, how could I change that?” Working in an office for a while I got a thing for paperclips. I really, really want to make a flapper dress but instead of fringing use paperclips. If you’re around something long enough, you start to get bored and want to make things more interesting.
 

Why should people customise?
Because it’s fun, it’s interesting. No one wants to be boring and you get something that’s uniquely you.