made licensees promoted via various

They are often heavy and sometimes a forklift is required to move the moulds around the factory. not be upholstered.So does the Australian community and models such as this deserve close scrutiny. To make moulded plywood furniture such as ours on anything other than a very small scale generally involves the use of presses, moulds (which are heavy, moved by a forklift), sawing equipment etc.On 5 March  Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research launched Australian Made Media. The designer of the piece of furniture usually comes up with the specifications  size, shape etc of a mould. 

Common materials for these moulds are plywood itself, medium density fibreboard (MDF) or concrete. If this trend is not arrested, then more Australian workers will lose jobs, valuable skills will be lost and we risk losing that manufacturing process in Australia. There are 2 components to each mould, a male and female part, which come together to make the furniture.Creative Enablers is the term coined by the Australian Design Unit (see Issue 4, 16 March 2010) to describe manufacturers who develop a symbiotic relationship with designers, with each party valuing the skills and processes the other brings to the table. However, as Senator Carr highlighted, the campaign also aims to ensure Australia remains a country that actually makes things.

There are now only three moulded plywood furniture factories in Australia where the finished, wood product is pet molds of such a quality that it can stand alone .Let us hope the recent attention to Australian made focuses debate and leads to some longterm solutions for the Australian furniture industry, among many other sectors. This initiative will see the products of Australian made licensees promoted via various arms of the media.To make moulded plywood furniture in a commercial quantity involves specialised equipment  primarily moulds and presses.Seminars are part of many high profile trade events and details of the DesignEX/Form & Function Seminar Series (Sydney, April 2010) have just been announced. Most small, independent furniture designers have neither the funds nor time nor knowledge to set up factories of their own, so it is common practice to contract out the manufacturing of their own design to an already established, specialist factory. 

A snapshot of where we are now and the benefits of supporting Australian design are on the agenda for discussion. The production at one of these has already been seriously curtailed, in part due to a steady stream of previous clients shifting their manufacturing overseas in recent years. Interestingly, one seminar, titled Australian Design  Sunrise or Sunset mentions in its synopsis local designers struggle to survive and manufacturing in Australia is said to be at an all time low. Its also about defending Australian jobs and building sustainable prosperity. The ADU points out that by having this dialogue and fostering these relationships, both the manufacturing industry and Australian designers stand to gain.As a designer whose moulded plywood furniture products have been designed and made in Australia for ten years, I have witnessed first hand how critical a strong, local manufacturing furniture industry is.