Brisbane based Steve Szell began Szephyr Guitars in 2020 as a sustainable Luthier & timber craft practice that focuses on building high quality, affordable instruments with Australian native reclaimed timbers sourced from old furniture, demolished buildings & leftover arborist slabs.
Steve is a Graduate Interior Designer and Graduate of Architecture with work ranging across the fields of design, visual art, large scale installation, music and academia. His focus remains on the material aspects of design in sustainable manners and the integration of experimental design methodology in conventional practice. Steve’s core ethos in creative practice is to produce multi- faceted outcomes that links environmental sustainability to community.
This exhibition is intended to express the material qualities of reclaimed timber through the process of refinement and care to celebrate their inherent qualities. The narrative thread of celebrating the timber through working it up from its raw, weathered state through the stages of the instrument build process to a final outcome is core to the development of producing Szephyr’s instruments.
“There is nothing more satisfying than taking the time to work up an old, greyed piece of timber to reveal the bright and deep colours and patterns of seasoned timber to then turn into a living, breathing artefact like an instrument.”
Steve Szell
