Our design as well as our research and development strategies are typically to simultaneously work on development and design instead of applying development to design. By doing this the different parts to our process inform one and other in a bidirectional, nonhierarchical manner. In many ways we see the material science side of our work to be just as much about design as styling a chair form or resolving ergonomic factors. In 2005 while testing a composite made from a thermal set resin and plant fiber, we call Palmstrate, we decided it was time to design and prototype a discrete objects from the material, even though we had only successfully made one composite test prior to this. As such we designed as series of simple stool seating forms to observe, test ad evaluate from perspectives of design critique as well as a through more analytical observing and quasi testing its mechanical properties (hardness, toughness modulus of rupture and elasticity). Palmstrate plant fibers could easily be diverted from Los Angles County landfills, or harvested from renewable, farmed palm tree foliage grown in Guatemala. Our fiber selection is navigated by aesthetics, structural integrity and a desire to find an environmentally sensitive source of fiber for mass production. These choices serve to protect larger habitats and ecosystems if they were mimicked by the larger manufacturing community. The forms we are making are driven by an interest in developing plastic like hollow formed components. However, as much as we are interested in aesthetics, the efforts are tempered by a commitment to defining and then blurring cultural perspectives concerning material associations, the methods of manufacturing and hand work. A cultural interest in the role craft may play in commodification of objects and materials is central to the design, making and distribution of our ideas.