"Why do I make things?"
"Making things is what all humans do. It’s knowing what you want to make, that’s the test. I guess I see the world different to most people and I have a knack for turning those points of views into form." "I’ve been exploring copper for ten years now. Pulling and pushing the boundaries of what convention says can be done with the metal. My lack of education in design has, I think, only helped this process. I’m not bogged down by pre conceived ideas. Change comes easily to me. Maybe that’s why copper and I get on so well. We’re both adaptable."

Stephen Myburgh was born in Durban, south Africa. "A nice little surf town but it may well be a architectural black hole on earth." His parents, both artists in their own right, filled his days with creativity and experiment. "So it was that I picked up the knack of creating."

After his national service he left South Africa and began a long voyage of discovery. "My travels have taken me all over the world. From the jungles of Guatemala to the deserts of Egypt. It is these experiences that help me see the world as I see it now."

In 1997 his wonderings brought him to London. It was in London that he started to explore metal work in the large scale. "Don’t be mistaken, I did my time making railings. And there are many buildings in London that have’ original Stephen Myburgh’ railings adorning their perimeters." But very quickly furniture design became the subject to which he gave his time.
In 1998 in partnership with Caroline Fletcher (whom he would later marry), Myburgh Designs launched the Mood Swing collection.

"Nature and its subtleties has always been my design program. But opulence and luxury offer the theatre that I love to live with. Copper is a wonderful medium to merge these two desires". Stephen Myburgh’s mood swings are high end furniture that brings into your homes this feeling of natural opulence. Soft forms that float with a strange weightless authority. "I sit in the divide between nature-made and man-made, and my designs are the result of something that goes on there, in this gap between man and nature. The shapes I make sit comfortably in your gaze because they are some thing natural, some thing not far from all of us." We are all natural after all!"

There are eight pieces in the collection. Each with its own character. From the Lily swing, who is delicate and polite, to the Pumpkin King, who laughs out loud and wraps you in his giant arms. From the ancient warm motherhood of the Ostara, to the sparkling youth popping in and out of sight with the bubble swing. How you interact with the swings is also a sign of their character. In the Moon swing you lie back with your feet up as if reclining on a crescent moon. With the Jasmine swing you curl up into a willow nest held aloft by draping vines. "When people sit in the pieces for the first time you see them instantly transported away to some stage of their own making, giggling with the playful character that is imbued in each of the designs."

All the designs are like characters in a travelling theatre troupe.

And travel they do. Fletcher and Myburgh have sold swings in all corners of the globe. Desert Sheiks in Yemen, corporate princesses in Germany; even the Singaporean ambassador to London acquired a Mypod to decorate Singapore’s fabulous botanical gardens.

Stephen Myburgh’s new work is something completely new for him.
"I’m calling my new design Breath because I want it to represent a refreshing in my own thinking and maybe a change in collective thinking."
"The heat beat and treat methods that we have been using up till now, seem, in light of world temperatures, to be... Less intelligent."

And so Breath is a result of Stephen’s experiments into the world of bio polymers.
Polymers have always enticed Stephen as a medium because of the unlimited form you can create with it.
New research into Bio-polymers inspired Stephen to start investigating the boundaries of this very modern material.
Breath may be the first piece of high end furniture to be made out of a plant base composite material. "It’s magic. It’s like using maize to make art. And this all takes place at room temperature. No foundries, forges and super touches, just time and plant matter."

Myburgh Designs has its eyes set on a positive future.
"I want to contribute to a new era in which environment; art and design converge to lay the corner stones for the very bright future that I see ahead of us."

"I’m excited to be a designer in this time when more and more people are choosing responsible design over cheaper options. I think that there is an age of beauty coming. An age where beauty will be the most valuable commodity. And all the intellectual disciplines, like science, art, architecture and philosophy, will mingle together breaking down the dogmas and illusions of our past. Dogmas and illusions that have been sometimes useful in our evolution but now, in this, our ‘coming of age’ seem too conservative and limiting. I think everyone should get excited about this."

For the immediate future however, Stephen, is reaching for the stars in the world of furniture design. The Mood swing collection will be shown in all the major international design shows this year. This list includes London design week, Tokyo design week, the Milan furniture fair, Tim Clarks interiors in los Angles and the international interiors show in Dubai.

When asked who he is influenced by, Stephens answer goes on and on. "But the top of my list is William McDonough, Santiago Calatrava, Andy Golds worthy, Ron Arad and my beautiful wife Caroline." But freedom from the art and design world’s strict fashion sense gives Steve his liberty. "Most times a bug or an ant hill can give me more design ideas than paging through glossy magazines. Guess I’m just weird that way."