Cross-pollination is an amazing thing. In genetics it provides the raw material for natural selection, mutating genes to change their chemical structure. In design it evolves household objects into functional pieces of art, like those created by Bianca Riggio and Ryan Hanrahan behind Page Thirty Three.

The duo’s creations have been floating around in cyberspace and in some of Sydney’s coolest boutiques for about a year now, and Riggio and Hanrahan have just launched an online store with all their most covetable items. Drawing inspiration from graphic arts, trees, flowers, weeds, music, fashion, youth culture, art history, design and the street, Page Thirty Three is a constantly evolving design project. “Somewhere between the cold dark of dawn and a fluffy doily we inherited from our grandma, our collection has become a direct reflection of what intrigues us in daily life. Facing new challenges in the Modern World, Page Thirty Three has started to evolve our process and design towards a new way of thinking.”

All the pieces are like far superior versions of those novelty homeware items you used to buy as gifts for your friends who had just turned 21 and moved into their first flats, and that made you desperate for a place of your own so you could interior decorate the bejeebers out of it. It’s the comical aspect that makes these pieces instantly appealing, but the functionality and artfulness that makes them stick in your mind for days afterwards. Their signature wooden crates take the simplicity of a milk crate and give it a crafted wooden finish, and are also highly versatile — they can be used as seats, shelves, side tables and storage units, with each crate interlocking vertically when stacked on top of another. And if you’ve never had the chance to fulfill your rock star dream of smashing an electric guitar on stage, consider the why-did-nobody-think-of-this-before guitar fly swatter that comes complete with stand. The only problem with something this cool is that you probably don’t want squished black insects all over it.

Page Thirty Three’s latest collection, ‘Entertaining the Myth’, sees a deepening of the connection and friendship between art, humour, design, irony and functionality. The Ceramic Jigsaw Plates can be pieced together to make larger serving platters and the Fortune Cushion flipped over if you’d rather look forward to “fame, riches and love” than “some great honour”, while the witty Burning Bank Incense Burner pokes fun at collapsing financial systems and greedy banks.

Riggio and Hanrahan’s way of thinking is one that “involves as many Australian made products as possible, as well as using, not just sustainable and recycled materials, but also re-using existing materials in order to break the energy flow.” That’s a very good excuse to indulge in a little online shopping, though if you’d rather see the artistry up close a full list of stockists is available on the website too.