Hilla Shamia’s creates unique industrial-style furniture by harmonizing wood and aluminum. Based in Tel Aviv, she pours hot metal into leg molds that surround the organic material to preserve the wood’s shape and texture which makes each of her consoles, benches, and stools one-of-a-kind.
Her inspiration came from wanting to make something with nature, “Nature has paths and things get stuck along the way. I wanted to do the same with wood, to take it and do something to it that’s never been done,” she told The Times of Israel.
To make the tops smooth, she fills in the gaps and divets in the natural wood from raw cypress and eucalyptus with molten aluminum. The burning of the molten aluminum on the surface of the raw wooden logs creates a beautiful black layer of carbon to make a boundary between the silvery color of the aluminum and the wood’s natural colors.
“We focus on material research and development of forms, while drawing inspiration from the process of time and the supposed imperfections found in nature,” Shamia told Colossal. Her furniture collection fuses the wood with cool metal for functional pieces that will make a statement when added to any room.
Check out some of her work below.
