Exploring Hemp in Design: Yasmin Bawa abandons concrete for hempcrate

November 3, 2025

Yasmin Bawa is a Berlin based object and furniture designer whose work is based on an exploration of materials and techniques which lead to the creation of multiform sculptures. With a background in textile design and having worked for Swedish brand Acne Studio as an accessory designer, Bawa found hard to understand the rhythm of fashion production and after three years there she left her job and started working freelance: «In the fashion world I used to work so fast that I did not have time to really focus on the design, and after a while I felt the need to change my way of work and start to nurture my design ideas longer and with more care. The environmental issues relating to the fashion world and its production process influenced my decision as well».

 

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      Yasmin Bawa

      Yasmin Bawa is a British-American sculptor whose practice is rooted in natural materials, traditional hand-building techniques, and an intuitive approach to form. She studied fashion in London and worked in the industry for several years before turning fully to sculpture. After nearly a decade in Berlin developing her practice, she recently relocated to the Ardèche region of southern France, where she now lives and works among mountains and rivers. 

      At the core of her work is hemp lime, a compound of hemp shiv and lime binder used to sculpt the main structure of each piece. This is layered with successive coats of lime plaster and finished by hand using a polishing technique inspired by Moroccan tadelakt. Yasmin’s forms are curved, organic, and quietly present. They sit between sculpture and object, created as much to be lived with as to be observed. Her work explores ideas of roots, identity, and belonging, shaped by a life lived across cultures and landscapes.

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