Wild Parrots & Co

is the name of the studio and highlights the importance to consider the wild, the untouched nature in all our projects and endeavours on this planet. Parrots are highly intelligent beings that have an amazing sense of humour, they are social creatures and experience emotions similar to humans. They are creative and colourful, loud and full of life. Parrots are also considered as being messengers of good fortune. The &Co is for all other creatures and their habitats that need our protection, including us humans.

Barbara Elisabeth

Barbara Elisabeth Treiber MSc, MFA

is an Australian and Austrian artist and designer who completed her Fine Art studies as Master of Fine Art at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia and her Design studies as Master in Strategic Product Designer at IHU Thessaloniki, Greece.

Born in Graz, Austria, she grew up in a family where tradition and cultural celebrations were important cornerstones of life and home, and where innovation and creativity were daily bread, as her father had taken over the family engineering company at a very young age, designing and manufacturing ski lifts, gear boxes and other products made from stainless steel. Having spent a lot of time in her childhood marvelling at the technical drawings and the huge CNC machines cutting the steel, the smell of oil, the sharp spiral rainbow coloured shavings of steel to the amazing experience of using the T-bar ski lifts that her father had created from scratch, it makes sense that one of the materials she is now drawn to is stainless steel. Her great-grandfather was one of the first to use the material in Austria, back when it was called Nirosta.

After leaving Austria at an early age she continued her studies in Fine Art, while getting married and becoming a mother. She has travelled extensively living on different continents and in many different cities.

In Sydney, Australia she started a small outdoor furniture business, after seeing a need for folding tables and benches for the Victorian-style terrace houses with their courtyards that doubled as carports and weekend bbq places. The tables and benches had marine grade stainless steel supports and were made from sustainable, solar kiln dried Australian hardwood. It was a great success. After moving to Melbourne she left the business and worked as an artist with her own art studio and showroom which also included some interior decorative pieces and small furniture that was either designed by her or up-cycled and made new. After moving yet again, this time to Europe, she decided to throw herself back into studies to further her product design making skills.

She is an artist and creative product designer, her useful objects all connect to a story, they are inspired by the beauty of nature and the human spirit which she believes is expressed through the many variations of art and creativity, that can be seen and experienced in the myriad of cultural elements and creations around the world. As a designer her focus is on contemporary design of furniture and products that create harmony between materiality, design and function, thus have an aesthetic appeal, respect our environment and forge connections and collaborations across cultures and societies.