A symmetrical view of the Oratory at Abbotsford Convent frames Tom Fereday's Arum exhibition at Melbourne Design Week 2026. The timber-clad proscenium arch, flanked by stained glass windows, forms a warm backdrop to the Sia Chair, Mano glass blocks in smoky cast glass, and the travertine Cor Light totem on stage.

Tom Fereday's Solo Exhibition at Melbourne's Abbotsford Convent Explores the Elemental Origins of Glass

Words by Yatzer

Melbourne, Australia

Sand is where glass begins. It is a fact so essential that it tends to pass unnoticed, but it forms the bedrock of Arum, Sydney-based designer Tom Fereday's solo exhibition held at Abbotsford Convent during Melbourne Design Week 2026. Taking its name from the Latin arenarum, meaning 'of sand', the show celebrates both the origins of glass and its transformation into objects of considered contemporary design. Presented in two settings at the heart of one of Australia's oldest multi-arts precincts, Arum (May 14 - 25, 2026) brought together glass objects and furniture from existing series alongside new collaborative pieces; works that, across materials and scales, shared a common language of elemental form, craft integrity, and quiet material honesty.

The entrance to Tom Fereday's Arum exhibition at Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne Design Week 2026. The rough-cast limestone facade of the 19th-century building is bathed in sharp morning light, its Gothic arched niche above the doorway holding a weathered devotional fragment. A sandwich board bearing the exhibition title and dates stands to one side; through the open doors, white plinths and the glow of a lamp are just visible within.

Photography by Hamish McIntosh.

The Cor Light Travertine by Tom Fereday for Agglomerati occupies a corner of the Oratory at Abbotsford Convent, its pale pitted stone column and elliptical void set against a warm timber wall. A stained glass window depicting a devotional figure fills the arched recess beyond, the heritage setting lending quiet gravitas to Fereday's material rigour. Arum, Melbourne Design Week 2026.

Photography by Pier Carthew.

A wide view of Tom Fereday's Arum exhibition in a raw, high-ceilinged room at Abbotsford Convent, white and grey plinths carrying glass objects across a worn timber floor. The Port Lamp for Rakumba glows on the left, the Port Lamp for Rakumba illuminated tray sits in the foreground, and Sana pieces and Sana collection vessels populate the middle ground, the room's heavily patinated walls and a stained glass window framing the scene. Melbourne Design Week 2026.

Photography by Hamish McIntosh.

The Port Lamp for Rakumba glows softly on a white plinth at Tom Fereday's Arum exhibition, its ribbed oval glass form casting a pool of warm light. In the middle ground, two Sana vases in clear and amber cast quartz glass stand on an adjacent plinth, the layered patinated wall and stained glass window of Abbotsford Convent completing the atmosphere. Melbourne Design Week 2026.

Photography by Hamish McIntosh.

The Nola Lamp for NAU Design by Tom Fereday glows on a white plinth at Abbotsford Convent, its broad saucer-shaped crystal glass diffuser casting a warm, even light against the building's deeply worn patinated wall. A stained glass window with coloured panes filters ambient daylight behind it, the two light sources — one ancient, one designed — in quiet dialogue. Arum, Melbourne Design Week 2026.

Nola Lamp (in collaboration with NAU Design). Photography by Hamish McIntosh.

Fereday's practice is grounded in what he terms 'honest design': a conviction that materials and processes, attended to with rigour, generate form. Working across furniture, product design, and lighting, he collaborates with Australian artisans and international manufacturers with the shared belief that technical construction and material expression are inseparable. Underpinned by pure geometric volumes, organic forms, and fluid lines, Fereday's objects straddle craft heritage and contemporary design with ease, a quality that was aptly echoed in the exhibition's two settings: Abbotsford's Convent's Oratory and Mural Hall.

Originally a daytime chapel for the women of Abbotsford Convent, the Oratory now serves as a creative multi-use space as part of the 19th-century convent’s transformation into a cultural hub, yet it has lost none of its accumulated character: patinated walls, stained glass windows, a proscenium stage that carries the weight of its past. The Mural Hall, a grand corridor flooded with natural light, offers a different kind of grandeur, leading to a floor-to-ceiling mural framed by a proscenium arch. Displayed within this layered temporal continuum, the dialogue between heritage and modernity that underpins Fereday’s work came into sharper focus.

Sana collection vessels and incense holders in amber and clear cast quartz glass are displayed on white plinths at Abbotsford Convent, with the Nola Lamp for NAU Design glowing on an adjacent plinth to the right. A round stained glass window depicting a dove in white and gold filters daylight from above, the deeply patinated wall beneath it carrying decades of layered paint. Arum, Melbourne Design Week 2026.

Photography by Hamish McIntosh.

A long view of Tom Fereday's Arum exhibition in a second room at Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne Design Week 2026. White plinths punctuate the worn timber floor of a raw, high-ceilinged hall, its deeply patinated walls and exposed brickwork contrasting with the precision of the objects on display. A stained glass window and dark timber ceiling lend the space its residual institutional character.

Photography by Pier Carthew.

Three Mazer Tea Lamps by Tom Fereday photographed in close detail against a warm neutral ground, their amber glass stems and broad caps glowing with an inner warmth. The irregular, fire-textured surface of each piece — no two marks identical — speaks directly to Fereday's insistence that the hand-casting process should remain visible in the finished object. Arum, Melbourne Design Week 2026.

Mazer Tea Lamp (in collaboration with Powerhouse Museum). Photography by Pier Carthew.

A section of Tom Fereday's Arum exhibition at Abbotsford Convent, showing glowing Nola Lamps and Mazer Tea Lamps on white plinths, their warm diffused light set against the building's layered patinated walls and stained glass windows. In the middle ground, two amber Mazer Tea Lamps cluster on a shared plinth, their mushroom forms glowing like embers. Melbourne Design Week 2026.

Photography by Pier Carthew.

A large domed lamp in frosted clear cast quartz glass and a compact stacked disc incense holder in deep ruby red, its incense stick cutting a thin vertical line above, part of Tom Fereday's Arum exhibition, Melbourne Design Week 2026The pairing distils Fereday's preoccupation with optical contrast and the meditative possibilities of cast glass.

Sana Incense and Nola Lamp (in collaboration with NAU Design). Photography by Pier Carthew.

The glass works at the heart of the exhibition share a preoccupation with natural variation, the idea that the handmade process should leave its mark. A result of extensive material and production experimentation in solid cast quartz glass, the Sana collection encapsulates Fereday's design language of elemental rigour. Comprising vases, candle holders, and incense holders, the collection has an almost geological presence: surfaces carry the natural variation of the casting process, with no two pieces being identical. The Mano Tables limited edition series, developed in collaboration with Eco Outdoor, scales the same sensibility into furniture: the modular pieces are made up of two types of Mano Blocks, hand-cast from 70% recycled glass and 30% quartz sand, each piece bearing the visible ripple left by the pour.

  • Two Sana vases by Tom Fereday stand together on a white plinth at the Oratory, Abbotsford Convent: a tall conical form in pale clear quartz glass and a shorter cylinder in deep amber, their pure geometric profiles and contrasting tones making the material differences between individual castings quietly legible. Arum, Melbourne Design Week 2026.

    Sana Vase. Photography by Pier Carthew.

  • A large Sana bowl from Tom Fereday's Arum exhibition, hand-cast in frosted clear quartz glass, sits on a white plinth against a near-black background. The domed form's softly granular surface diffuses light across its gently convex face, the shadow it casts on the plinth below echoing the roundness of the object. Melbourne Design Week 2026.

    Sana bowl. Photography by Pier Carthew.

  • Two pieces from Tom Fereday's Sana collection — a low circular incense holder in deep olive cast quartz glass with a red incense stick, and a fluid wave-form vase in textured amber glass — share a white plinth at Arum, Melbourne Design Week 2026. The contrasting surface finishes, one smooth and reflective, the other granular and matte, speak to the natural variation of the hand-casting process.

    Sana Incense. Photography by Pier Carthew.

  • Two glass blocks by Tom Fereday in deep olive-amber recycled cast glass sit side by side on a white plinth, their surfaces densely granular and pitted from the hand-pouring process. Each contains a hemispherical void pressed into the glass face, the form suspended between geological specimen and functional object. Arum, Melbourne Design Week 2026, Abbotsford Convent.

    Mazer Bowl - Edition by Tom Fereday. Photography by Pier Carthew.

A stacked Sana vessel in amber cast quartz glass and a small flat Sana incense holder with a single incense stick share a white plinth at Tom Fereday's Arum exhibition. The vessel's three ridged tiers catch warm directional light against a deeply mottled patinated wall, while Mano Table blocks in dark glass are visible softly out of focus in the foreground. Melbourne Design Week 2026.

Photography by Hamish McIntosh.

Sana collection pieces by Tom Fereday are arranged within a recessed built-in alcove set into the deeply patinated wall of Abbotsford Convent: stacked disc candle holders in clear cast quartz glass fill two shelves, with darker versions in black cast glass resting on the floor below. The heritage niche, its paint worn back through layers of colour, frames the objects with an accidental elegance. Arum, Melbourne Design Week 2026.

Photography by Pier Carthew.

Sana collection from Tom Fereday's Arum exhibition line the shelves of a dark timber cabinet, their stacked ribbed forms in frosted and clear cast quartz glass catching the warm raking light. The worn grain of the shelving and the quiet repetition of the objects — each subtly different in opacity — give the display the unhurried quality of a workshop in progress. Melbourne Design Week 2026.

Photography by Hamish McIntosh.

Where the Sana and Mano works are about weight and solidity, the lamps in Arum explore what glass does with light. The Port Lamp for Rakumba, cast from solid crystal glass and housed in machined brass, features a reversible form that can be flipped to alter its light interaction entirely, the solid glass obscuring the light source so completely that the lamp reads as a pure, self-contained glow. The Nola Lamp for NAU Design is more formally expressive: a broad saucer-shaped diffuser on a cylindrical stem, available in hand-cast crystal glass or honed solid onyx, its contrasting surface finishes creating an ambiguous, shifting glow that plays on the refractive nature of the material. Where the Nola is geometric and considered, the Mazer Tea Lamp, developed in collaboration with Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum and launching in September, softens into something more organic: a mushroom-like silhouette in warm amber glass that glows more like an ember than a light source.

  • Three Mazer Tea Lamps from Tom Fereday's Arum exhibition, hand-cast in amber glass with organic mushroom-like silhouettes, are grouped on a white plinth at the Oratory, Abbotsford Convent. The textured, fire-marked surfaces of each cap catch the light differently, making the natural variation of the sand-casting process legible across the set. Melbourne Design Week 2026.

    Mazer Tea Lamp (in collaboration with Powerhouse Museum). Photography by Pier Carthew.

  • A close grouping of Mazer Tea Lamp candle holders by Tom Fereday, hand-cast in amber and deep amber glass with mushroom-shaped caps and cylindrical stems, each holding a tealight. The heavily textured surfaces, marked by the visible grain of the casting process, shift between gold and deep red-brown depending on the angle of light. Arum, Melbourne Design Week 2026.

    Mazer Tea Lamp (in collaboration with Powerhouse Museum). Photography by Pier Carthew.

Four Mazer Tea Lamps in amber cast glass, alongside a low Sana incense holder, are arranged across two stepped white plinths at Tom Fereday's Arum exhibition. The mushroom-capped forms graduate in scale, the larger pair on the taller plinth, their warm tones set against a deeply worn patinated wall layered in grey, ochre, and rust. Melbourne Design Week 2026.

Photography by Hamish McIntosh.

  • An overhead view of the Port Lamp by Tom Fereday for Rakumba, its polished brass base cradling a solid cast crystal glass body of concentric oval ridges. The highly reflective surface catches a warm, raking light, amplifying the precision of the form and the material's smooth, machined finish. Arum, Melbourne Design Week 2026.

    Port Light (in collaboration with Rakumba). Photography by Pier Carthew.

  • A corner of Tom Fereday's Arum exhibition at Abbotsford Convent, showing the Nola Lamp for NAU Design glowing on a plinth alongside Sana vases in clear and amber cast quartz glass. The deeply patinated walls, with their layers of bare plaster and exposed brick, and a geometric stained glass window lend the heritage room an unguarded rawness that complements Fereday's material honesty. Melbourne Design Week 2026.
  • The Nola Lamp for NAU Design in hand-cast crystal glass is paired on a white plinth with Sana incense holder in deep ruby and amber cast quartz glass. The lamp's cool frosted diffuser and the dense, fire-marked surface of the Sana pieces distil Tom Fereday's ongoing exploration of light and opacity within a single composition. Arum, Melbourne Design Week 2026.

    Nola Lamp (in collaboration with NAU Design) and Sana Incesnse. Photography by Pier Carthew.

  • Two amber cast glass Mazer Tea Lamps by Tom Fereday sit on a white plinth against the deeply patinated walls of the Oratory at Abbotsford Convent. The worn plasterwork, layered in muted ochres and greys, forms an unintentionally rich backdrop that heightens the warm translucency of the hand-cast glass. Arum, Melbourne Design Week 2026.

    Photography by Pier Carthew.

The Sia Chair solid bronze edition and the amber Mano glass modules occupy the Oratory's tiled floor at Abbotsford Convent, beneath a tall Gothic stained glass window depicting a devotional figure. The juxtaposition of 19th-century ecclesiastical architecture and Tom Fereday's precisely formed contemporary objects gives the scene a quiet, almost devotional gravity. Arum, Melbourne Design Week 2026.

Sia Chair - Solid bronze edition and Mano Blocks. Photography by Pier Carthew.

A full view of Tom Fereday's Arum exhibition at the Oratory, Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne Design Week 2026. White plinths carry glass objects and glowing lamps across the worn timber floor, drawing the eye toward the timber-clad proscenium arch where the Mano Tables, Sia Chair, and Cor Light totem hold the stage in a quietly theatrical composition.

Photography by Pier Carthew.

On the Oratory's proscenium stage at Abbotsford Convent, the Sia Chair in solid bronze and the amber and smoke-toned Mano glass blocks are bathed in warm directional light against a deep timber wall. Tom Fereday's Arum exhibition at Melbourne Design Week 2026 pairs raw material presence with precise, minimal form.

Photography by Hamish McIntosh.

Not everything in Arum is glass. Fereday's Sia Chair and Cor Light take the stage, literally, in conversation with the Mano Blocks on the Oratory's proscenium. Originally designed in aluminium for NAU Design, the Sia Chair was presented in solid bronze as a limited exhibition edition, its slender frame and bespoke adjustable backrest a study in structural economy. The Cor Light, in contrast, imposes a heftier presence, its monolithic, totemic volume crafted in travertine in collaboration with stone specialists Agglomerati. The two pieces may pull in different directions, yet presented alongside the Mano Blocks, this eclectic cast of characters attested to Fereday's appetite for material and formal experimentation.

  • The Sia Chair solid bronze edition by Tom Fereday stands alone on the Oratory's parquet stage at Abbotsford Convent, caught in a pool of warm directional light. The chair's slender steel frame and gently curved cast seat read as a study in structural economy, its golden patina resonating with the deep timber cladding behind. Arum, Melbourne Design Week 2026.

    Sia Chair - Solid bronze edition (based on the Sia chair for NAU Design). Photography by Hamish McIntosh.

  • An overhead view of a rounded Mano glass blocks from Tom Fereday's Arum exhibition, its amber recycled glass blocks reflecting the herringbone parquet of the Oratory stage at Abbotsford Convent. The interlocking cast glass panels catch the warm light, their surfaces marked by the visible texture of the hand-pouring process. Melbourne Design Week 2026.

    Mano Blocks (in collaboration with Eco Outdoor). Photography by Pier Carthew.

  • Tom Fereday's Cor Light Travertine for Agglomerati, a monolithic column of pitted Roman travertine with a deep spherical aperture, stands on the Oratory's parquet stage alongside stacked Mano glass block modules. The warm timber panelling behind amplifies the contrast between the stone's pale, textured surface and the smoky translucency of the cast glass. Arum, Melbourne Design Week 2026.

    Cor Light - Travertine edition in collaboration with Agglomerati. Photography by Hamish McIntosh.

Multiple configurations of Tom Fereday's Mano glass block series in smoke and amber cast recycled glass are grouped on the Oratory's parquet stage at Abbotsford Convent. Stacked into columns of varying heights, the modular glass blocks read as a small architectural installation, their translucent surfaces shifting between green and brown depending on the angle of light. Arum, Melbourne Design Week 2026.

Mano Blocks (in collaboration with Eco Outdoor). Photography by Pier Carthew.

A symmetrical view of the Oratory at Abbotsford Convent frames Tom Fereday's Arum exhibition at Melbourne Design Week 2026. The timber-clad proscenium arch, flanked by stained glass windows, forms a warm backdrop to the Sia Chair, Mano glass blocks in smoky cast glass, and the travertine Cor Light totem on stage.

Photography by Pier Carthew.

Glass begins as sand and ends as something that holds light. Arum is, at its most distilled, a meditation on that journey: on what is preserved and what is transformed when raw material passes through the hands of a considered maker. Across every piece in the exhibition, Fereday's answer is that the two are not opposites.

Three glass blocks by Tom Fereday in graduating sizes — two in olive-amber and one in clear cast recycled glass — are arranged on a shelf edge at Arum, with the warm tone of upholstered seating visible in the foreground. Each block carries a hemispherical relief pressed into its face; the clear central piece makes the form's internal depth visible in a way the coloured blocks conceal. Melbourne Design Week 2026.

Mazer Bowl - Edition by Tom Fereday. Photography by Pier Carthew.

A large glass block by Tom Fereday in dark smoke-toned recycled cast glass occupies a plinth at Arum, its square form dominated by a deep hemispherical relief pressed into the granular, pitted surface. The exhibition's other plinths recede into soft focus behind it, Sana vessels visible in the middle distance. Melbourne Design Week 2026, Abbotsford Convent.

Photography by Pier Carthew.

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Exhibition view at Mural Halll, Abbotsford Convent. Sia Chair Aluminium and Cor Light Aluminium. Photography by Pier Carthew.