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Artist Kym Bartels on Creating Marble Inspired Homeware

Ask anyone and 99% of people will profess a love for marble. Once we stumbled upon Kym Bartel and her lovingly hand-crafted marble inspired designs, we knew we had to bring attention to this Tasmanian owner’s 4-year-old pride and joy…

Kym Bartels hails from Launceston, Tasmania and while Tasmania is known for its fresh produce, pristine air and tantalizing food, there is a burgeoning culture of small business owners who take pride in their chosen trades. Think organic honey, hand-made woodwork and our greatest discovery—Kym’s concrete-marble items.

Read on to find out how you can get your hands on Kym’s one-of-a-kind creations and be prepared to fawn over her gorgeous handmade pieces! If you fall in love with these marbled beauties (which we guarantee you will!), Kym is also available to create custom orders for you. Check out her full inventory on her Facebook Shop and get one of our Aussie-based Boxers to purchase it and send it to your doorstep.

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What inspired you to start Inspired Design?

Creating affordable and stylish homewares was very much the starting point behind my business 4 years ago. I began dabbling in handcrafted items 11 months ago and realized that creating a marbling effect on concrete was a more accessible way for my clients who were fans of marble but did not necessarily want to pay the price of marble.

My prices start at 5 AUD for a small trinket bowl, 10 AUD for a cup pot, 15 AUD for a medium bowl and are capped at 35 AUD for a tall pot and 40 AUD for a large bowl.

Tell us more about the process of creating each piece.

All marbled concrete products are handmade by myself including a lot of the moulds. Creating a marble effect can be very tricky and is quite a painstaking process.  If you do it too quickly, it isn’t effective and will be too slow of a process—also the concrete sets before you’ve achieve the marbled effect.

Each piece takes between 7 to 10 days on average to create. Once made and set in moulds, it takes 24 hours to set. The items are then removed from the moulds and left to dry in a temperature-controlled room for 3 to 4 days before it is polished, water-sealed and left to dry for another 12 to 24 hours.

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What are your favourite items?

The marbled Diamond and small planter.

Do you have any plans to set up a store?

Right now, Facebook, Instagram and the weekly Evandale market is my store-front!

Inspired and want to shop for Kym’s ‘made with love’ creations?

If you are lusting over these beautiful creations to decorate your home with –

  1.  Simply sign in/up at ShopandBox and navigate to your AUSTRALIA WISHLIST
  2.  Populate it with whatever you want from Kym’s store as well as anything else you want from Australia
  3.  An Aussie Boxer will be assigned to shop for your desired goodies, box them up and send them over to you.

For your reference, DHL charges by every 500g so take a look at the weight of Kym’s items and start planning how to make full use of your international shipping with our favourite Aussie fashion brands here and here, as well as what $100 will buy you in a local Aussie drugstore. Or if you have a little one at home, be sure to check out these irresistible baby brands from down-under.

  • Small bowl: 360 grams
  • Small votive (candle): 600 to 660 grams
  • Small pot: 600 to 660 grams
  • Medium pot: 800 to 850 grams
  • Diamonds from small to mega: 200 grams to 400grams
  • Large round and square planter: 2 to 3.5 kgs

Here at ShopandBox, we support small local businesses around the world. If you want to be featured, leave a comment and one of our team will get in touch!

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