Featured Maker // Dual Works
Dual Works
Zoe Robertson & Steve Snell
Steve Snell and Zoe Robertson are a husband and wife team who launched Dual Works in 2015. The duo are based in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham and have transformed an empty warehouse space into their work.shop. It is their home from home as they spend a lot of their time together there.
It comprises of a showroom, fabrication workshop, tool shed, and they are proud to say that together they built the entrance and showroom area to showcase their skills. The work.shop is where the duo design and fabricate a wide variety of commercial and residential projects alongside designing and making their own homewares collection which they showcase in the showroom.
Here the talented Dual Works tell us a little more about their love of design and how their creative business is run…
Can you explain where your business name comes from?
Our name derived from our training as Jewellers, as we are based in the Jewellery Quarter several of the buildings around here are named after former manufacturing ‘works’, so as a duo we played around with double meanings and Dual Works was founded. We originally set up the space as an artist studio as we were both involved in artistic practices which required a big space but word got out in our neighbourhood that we could make a whole variety of things. So via recommendations and word of mouth our business has transformed into what it is today and has been shaped by the opportunities that have materialised along the way.
What do you find most enjoyable about running your own creative business?
As a duo we have acquired a lifetime of material knowledge between us, we therefore consider ourselves multi material makers as our skill, knowledge and expertise spans a breadth of materials across woods, metal and plastic. This allows us to be nimble in our approach to design and fabrication projects as we can judge the most effective materials to realise an idea. Our skills are complementary, and we take on different roles in the business which plays to our strengths. We relish the time we work together as we share a love for design and making things for other people which brings us joy. As a couple we enjoy sharing and celebrating our successes and are there to support each other when we encounter challenges.
Talk us through your making process.
Our product range was born out of the surplus materials we generate as a direct result of our client based commissioned projects. These projects often result in accumulated waste and as we are mindful of the resources and their environmental impact, we decided to create products to elevate this waste to save it going into landfill.
“Our skills are complementary, and we take on different roles in the business which plays to our strengths. We relish the time we work together as we share a love for design and making things for other people which brings us joy. ”
A recently commissioned exhibition design project for a local arts organisation tackled this issue. Exhibition design is often associated with display furniture that only has one life then scrapped at the end of the show. We purposely designed and manufactured the display furniture to address these issues. We found a way that the materials we used could be reconfigured and reformed by using cold connections as the joining technique and this enable us to design for longevity and to enable the display furniture to have second life.
Our homeware collection is available to purchase exclusively at our work.shop. We focus on utilising materials that have a contemporary visual aesthetic combined with a fresh approach, clean lines and a colourful fun personality. We oversee every part of the design process from concept to manufacture, this guarantees that all our homewares are handmade in-house ensuring that high quality craftsmanship and the hand of the maker are central to our design values. We offer an evolving range whereby everything we make is produced in limited quantities such as our recently launched our Pocket Parks. As our green spaces have become ever more important to us over the last few months, we decided to create these pocket parks. As keen gardeners, lover of house plants and allotment holders we wanted to bring a little bit of green to your home. These limited editions have been made in relation to our workshop ethos in that we make use of our surplus materials and aim to recycle as much material as possible.
Can you describe your typical working day?
Overall, we enjoy the variety of work each day brings, we don’t have a typical day as such as we work to wide variety of design briefs. What’s unique about us is that we can offer a breadth of services as either design, fabrication, or design and fabrication. Which means we might be drawing up design proposals one day, installing a project the next, or working on developing prototypes for new products. Alongside the general admin tasks of running a business such as answering enquiries, posting Instagram stories, doing the accounts, as well as cleaning the workshop, meeting clients and entertaining our greyhound Sky, every day is different, and it beats working the typical 9 – 5 in a cliched office environment.
Although we do love that Dolly Parton song “….working 9 – 5……”!
Visit Dual Works’ website: dual.works
Follow them on Instagram: @thedualworks
