Sculpture studio shapes up as industry leader

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Date

May 27, 2013

Lump owners Chris Vassallo and Timothea Jewell Photo: LITTLE RED PHOTOGRAPHY

For the first time in 100 years, an Australian entry won Best in Show at the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show, described by some as the “Oscars of horticulture” and “Ashes of gardening”. But the Melbourne husband-and-wife whose custom-designed sculptures formed an integral part of the winning garden design weren’t there to toast victory or witness the Queen’s praise.

Instead, Chris Vassallo and Timothea Jewell were at home working at their Lump Sculpture Studio in Fairfield, Victoria, and caring for their young children – truly epitomising the small business way of life.

Since 2001 Lump has quietly established itself as Australia’s leading urban art, design and sculpture studio.

Lump staircase designed and manufactured in the Lump studio.

Jewell described Lump’s contribution to the winning Trailfinders Australian Garden presented by Fleming’s Nurseries as a “dream come true”. The $2 million exhibit featured a Phillip Johnson-designed naturally occurring Australian eco-system. Custom-designed sculptures by Lump are an integral element of the design, including ten intricate wood stack-patterned screens and a sculptural staircase, all made from laser-cut rusted corten steel.

Despite Vassallo and Jewell’s reputation as industry trendsetters, they are unassuming and simply grateful for their involvement at Chelsea.

“The interactive design was the perfect showcase for our work, and to have it recognised at the world’s most prestigious horticultural show is beyond words – it’s simply the best,” Jewell says.

Having their work displayed on the world stage is big leap from Lump’s first exhibit; Vassallo’s first sculpture still has pride of place in his parents’ garden. They were his first client, and the money he made from that job helped fund the start-up.

Back then Vassallo had worked as a graphic designer for more than a decade and Jewell was restoring antiques. (The couple went to school together, but didn’t meet up again until years later by chance.)

“I was in a suit-and-tie job in town and I was being shipped around from corporate office to corporate office designing corporate websites for the big banks, and I just got lost,” Vassallo says.

“It was lots of fun and I met a lot of amazing people, but it was a little stifling. So I bought a welder and started making stuff in my garage.”

Vassallo says the real turning point for the start-up was when Jewell made a miniature version of what would later become a signature Lump piece; light boxes with hand-cut trees carved into large rectangular panels.

“I was looking at [Jewell’s work] and said, ‘That’s a great idea, let’s do that but on steroids, and make them two metres tall,” he says.

“So we made the very first set of light boxes ever and we took them to a flower show…and then all of a sudden the industry turned around and went, ‘Wow, that’s kind of different, we’ve never seen this before.’

“[Celebrity landscape designer] Jamie Durie came straight up to the stand and brought the crowds and his camera…People were just amazed, saying, ‘What is that?’ and ‘How did you make these?’

“From there, more and more people came to us for inspiration and ideas.”

Vassallo says their work is constantly evolving to meet industry demand for something different.

“We’re always trying to find new materials to work with and also just trying to push the boundaries,” he says.

“We’re now moving into three-dimensional screens, where you can pull them out and push them in, and people can actually interact with their sculpture.”

Lump has a diverse client base, with jobs of varying scales. Homeowners fly in from around country looking for the “wow factor”, Vassallo says.

“It’s amazing how many commissions we get for sculptures priced from $3000 to $15,000 to go into a private home.”

They promote Lump via their website and social media, enter exhibitions and tender for public projects. But a lot of ideas are initiated in-house to satisfy their creative curiosities and demand by industry peers who are “usually gagging for something new”, Vassallo says.

One of their biggest challenges has been policing cheaper reproductions of Lump designs made overseas. Research and development of ideas is time-consuming and costly; an expense the copyists don’t have.

“It’s been happening a lot and it’s getting even more prevalent with the internet. We’re constantly fighting battles in China, where we’re trying to stop reproductions of our work,” Vassallo says.

“It used to bring us to tears, because it was such a personal investment.”

Even locals have been ripping off their work.

“There have even been quite a few small start-ups here in Melbourne, believe it or not, and we do have to engage lawyers in the end.

“It does make us think we must be going in the right direction if everyone keeps copying us.”

Lump now has 10 employees from industrial engineering/design, metal fabrication and fine art backgrounds.

Vassallo adds: “We never thought that we were going to have staff – it was always going to be just Tim and I mucking around.

“It took at least a good five or six years until we were drawing a proper wage. Whatever we did make, we would put back in. People just keep coming to us for more ideas, so we just keep creating.”

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Sculpture studio shapes up as industry leader

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