As we flew through the decades in our 9 Designers project, we found ourselves in June, celebrating the 1950s.

Following Katherine Mahoney's quintessentially 40s tea party, we were taken outside to the fresh beaches of Manly with Dana Lundmark’s character pieces depicting iconic Aussie beach-goers. Daring surfers rode the waves, lazy couples snoozed together in the sun and the ever-ready lifeguards sat and kept watch over the sand.

These hand crafted and painted figures were exclusive to MAG&M Design Shop and made especially for our 9 Designers project. Dana chose the 1950s as her preferred decade and conducted research into the Manly beach culture. She continues:

“Through my background work, I found relevant information and photographs as a basis for the final sculptures. I hand-build all pieces using Lumina porcelain clay. The surfboards featured are longboards -- the prevalent board design in the 1950s and all figures are wearing 1950-style swimming suits and paraphernalia, including the famous ‘yellow itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny polka-dot bikini’

Lundmark’s main piece for display was a series of plinths populated with her charming beach-side bodies. Everything in the display was available for sale, alongside exclusively designed hand-painted vases and cups. These were even food safe and suitable for cool liquid drinks.