People / Abby Ghent
Abby Ghent is a multidisciplinary designer driven by a need to keep their hands moving and their mind creating. Refusing to be boxed into a single craft, Abby explores a vast curiosity through designs that strike a perfect balance between practicality and playfulness. Their project, The Hands Playground, exemplifies this resourceful ethos. Born from studio closures and lockdown, the work transforms makeshift cardboard and tape models into permanent, slipcast ceramic vases and tableware. By preserving the raw cuts and production marks on the final surfaces, Abby turns spatial limitations into a tactile celebration of accessible making.
Hands Playground Chair
Operating from my bedroom during lockdown, I navigated tight spatial restrictions and zero infrastructure. The main limitation – having no raw material budget or supplier, turned me into a resourceful scavenger. I was constantly on the brink of full-blown hoarding, much to the annoyance of my flatmates. Having lost my current studio I find myself in the same limbo while I find somewhere new. This has resulted
in returning to old methods to keep my hands occupied and making. These constraints entirely dictated the design language of The Hands Playground. Lacking specialised tools, I used parcel cardboard and tape to ‘sketch in space,’ leaving raw cuts and tears visible on the final slipcast ceramic surfaces. Stripping away the safety net of a studio allowed limitation to become my most important collaborator, proving high-level design can step directly out of a makeshift setting.
Hands Playground Espresso Cups
Lacking specialised tools, I built a functional chair wrapped entirely in salvaged tape, using the material’s structural layering to ‘sketch in space’ while leaving raw cuts and overlaps intentionally visible. Stripping away the safety net of a studio allowed limitation to become my primary collaborator, proving high-level design can step directly out of a makeshift setting,
and that sometimes you just need to have
fun creating.