We might be biased, but we think all our guest brands are pretty amazing. However, there’s something particularly special about our homeware guest brand, Weez and Merl.
Founded by friends Louise and Merl in 2015, the Brighton Hove-based makers’ passion for design, traditional craft skills and crafting by hand, are combined with a desire to utilise waste materials.
Weez & Merl only create their stunning products by recycling LDPE plastic (Low Density Polyethylene), commonly found in items like carrier bags, bubble wrap and other flexible sheet packaging. The nature of LDPE means that its flexibility and low weight makes it convenient for packaging purposes but frequently jams or damages recycling equipment therefor making it extremely difficult to recycle at most facilities.
The solution? Turning these meltable plastics into gorgeous, 100% recycled handcrafted products that make a stunning feature and conversation piece in any home!
Weez & Merl only create their stunning products by recycling LDPE plastic (Low Density Polyethylene), commonly found in items like carrier bags, bubble wrap and other flexible sheet packaging. The nature of LDPE means that its flexibility and low weight makes it convenient for packaging purposes but frequently jams or damages recycling equipment therefor making it extremely difficult to recycle at most facilities.
The solution? Turning these meltable plastics into gorgeous, 100% recycled handcrafted products that make a stunning feature and conversation piece in any home!
All bundles are hand marbled and are quickly compression moulded using a hydraulic press and left to cool to retain their new shape.
New this season, Weez and Merl’s latest collection of tortoiseshell marbled coasters and trays.
Weez and Merl operate on a Zero-waste policy where all off-cuts, dust and planning curls created in their making processes are remelted and reused for future products.
The founders’ goal is for their unique approach to recycled materials to be considered as a precious material, unworthy of being thrown away or ending up in landfill. Each one of these beautifully made pieces is marbled by hand and completely unique.
Using waste materials has always been a point of fascination for us, even before we started experimenting with plastics: transforming something unwanted into something new and beautiful is not only satisfying, but a fun challenge! We see the current plastic waste epidemic as an opportunity to learn about an interesting and undervalued material, and to explore its potentials in design and craft. As makers, we are obsessed with it, it’s such an incredible material to work with by hand!
Our lunch-time swims! In the summer, with all the ovens that we have on in the studio, it gets ridiculously hot in our workshop. We’re working with 160°C melted plastic by hand as well as it being labour-intensive, so we often head down to the beach and have a quick swim, then come back up to the studio feeling somewhat refreshed. We’re so lucky to have the sea pretty much on our doorstep!
We face the same types of conundrums that everybody faces, like what to do with difficult to recycle materials, for example polystyrene when we order a new tool or similar. Honestly though, there’s not much that’s inherently challenging about being an environmentally responsible business – for us, it’s the only way we could think of doing it.
The way we think about it is that recycling should be the last resort. We’re recycling plastic because we want to make use of something that would otherwise end up in landfill or incinerators, or even the ocean – but if you think of the plastics industry being like a sink overflowing with water: you wouldn’t grab a mop and start mopping up the water first; you’d turn off the tap first! We love this analogy as it’s easy to feel guilty about buying products covered in plastics, but companies need to stop wrapping the products in plastics in the first place! Of course, there are more and more plastic free options available now, but many people can’t afford them. But something everyone can do is to write to companies and put pressure on them to change.
Yes there is a lot of greenwashing out there! To start off we’d suggest reading Cradle to Cradle by Michael Braungart and William McDonough. It’s not a very long book, and even though sustainability is a complex issue, it’s easy to read and just makes sense. One key concept in the book is that one industry’s waste can ‘feed’ another industry, just like nature ‘feeds’ itself in endless cycles and waste simply doesn’t exist. So if you want to make your business’ production sustainable, think about any ‘waste’ that’s produced as a ‘raw material’ instead. Then problem-solve until you’ve worked out how to utilise this raw material yourself in another area of your business, or divert it to another company that could use it. This is only one key idea from the book, there are many more that might apply better to your business!
It feels like there are endless possibilities. We can’t wait to rebuild our new big hydraulic press so that we can get back to exploring furniture design, but this project is on hold at the moment due to the pandemic. Until then, we can’t wait to finish our new range of boards, in three sizes. We’ve also got various other ideas for homewares, and we’d also love to continue exploring lighting design. From the beginning, we’ve been experimenting with more sculptural pieces too, and over the last year we’ve been whittling and carving the plastic, which is an awesome mix of traditional craft using a modern material. It’s an exciting time and there aren’t enough hours in the day!
Words by Claudia Brinkworth