Molten moulds: Italian duo find volcanic inspiration

The collection is a series of furniture and homeware products – from coffee tables to clocks and bowls – made from lava from the November 2013 eruption of Mount Etna.

Known for their unique manipulation of raw materials, the designers took the cooled lava, which had formed into basalt rock and applied it to textiles, milled and moulded it into furniture, and even had it blown into glass to form vessels.

‘Mount Etna is a mine without miners – it is excavating itself to expose its raw materials,’ say the designers. ‘By returning the rocks to their original molten state [we are] forcing a dialogue between the natural and the man-made.’

For more on designers taking inspiration from volcanic forms, read our Eruptia design direction and look out for our coverage of Salone Internazionale del Mobile 2014 from 8 to 13 April.