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That’s why I say, “You own it if you made it.” You don’t own the pie if you buy it. You just don’t. Doing projects really gives people self-confidence. Nothing is better than taking the pie out of the oven. What it does for you personally, and for your family’s idea of you, is something you can’t buy.
Quote from none other than Martha Stewart when she was interviewed by Wired recently.
HauteGREEN came and went this past May and while many of us weren’t lucky enough to attend, Inhabitat gives us an insider’s peek from their video, Reclaiming Design. Here they discuss the different ways of reclaiming used and discarded materials to transform them into beautifully designed pieces of furniture. They spoke with three featured designers: Carlos Salgado of Scrapile, Tejo Remy, Matt Gagnon and with Sam Grawe from Dwell Magazine.
They do give an interesting perspective on how much of the scrap materials we throw away can be reused again into things that are aesthetically pleasing and functional. I personally like the tables from Salgado, made from his efforts in “dumpster diving” through 63 cubic meters of wood scraps from the woodshops and millshops that populate New York. You definitely come to appreciate the thoughtfulness and effort behind these pieces.
Inhabitat: MIRROR MIRROR on the HauteGREEN wall
My father is a builder and a cabinet maker by trade, so I’ve grown up watching him work. He usually worked on renovating older homes, ripping out the older, weathered materials and updating with new materials. Sometimes he would come back with some treasured finds like solid pieces of native New Zealand timber like Kauri, Rimu, and Matai. From those rescued pieces he would often save them and later use them to create things - the odd table or chest and also these huge 6-foot high mirrors framed with beautiful rimu.
So I thought of him when I saw this wood Mirror Mirror by Paul Loebach via Inhabitat. It’s a beautiful and very intricate design - definitely much more involved than those of my dad’s. I really like the balinese-like flowing design, which makes it all more impressive since I know working with wood is very difficult and requires a lot of skills and good tools - especially to have it cut so precisely and smoothly. I’m not sure what Loebach used with this mirror (I looked on his site for it and couldn’t find it), but according to another similar mirror, like this one, he uses a water jet to cut a solid piece of wood. I suspect he may have used the same, but I certainly could be wrong!
What Inhabitat liked about this mirror was that he aims for zero wastage - using one piece of salvaged wood to make 2 mirrors with one cut. From Inhabitat:
The idea for this piece was simple, “By using a single cutting operation to produce multiple objects with zero waste, this product is a playful exploration of how efficient manufacturing processes can provide sustainable solutions.” Paul said.
Here are the two mirrors:
It was indeed a magical night where everyone got together to share and show off their hard work and beautiful products. Last Thursday we had a gathering of 19 users with their families and friends at the Paramount in Wellington. From the talented 19 users, we exhibited 27 amazing products, designed by them and made real by Ponoko.
The range of products included a bike light, lampshades, jewelry, tables, room dividers, a chess set, CD rack, artwork, and an architectural model of well-known Wellington neighbourhood Brooklyn. Every single piece had a great story behind it - how the concept and design came to be, and the learning curves and various alterations that happened along the way. Many had gone through a couple iterations to get it just right. One user, who created a lampshade had absolutely no experience with a vector package. But by her second iteration she had made something absolutely wonderful. I asked Dave if any one piece really stood out, but the truth is - every single piece was unique and personal, standing out in its own right.
Kudos to all the users! You must feel very proud of your creations!
To see more photos, check out our flickr photos.
Here are two GREAT finds in one post! The first is a tip from a friend who found this young product designer, Ben Arent who shares his school project on lighting called the Stealth Lamp. This is made from 0.9 mm polypropylene cut with a laser cutter. Under the Creative Commons license, you can download the design for free and make yourself a cool little lamp. If you can get your hands on the polypropylene, (Ben has a link to MUTR.co.uk where you can order in the UK), a standard UK lampholder and cord, and of course, access to a laser cutter, it’d be nice project to work on.
This brings me to the second great find - Unto this Last. It’s here that Ben interned and worked on his lighting project. This London furniture design firm/furniture workshop is based on the ‘return to local crafters’ model with a modern update. Using the latest in digital technology and 3D modelling, they manufacture in-house designed pieces of furniture in the Just-in-time/Made-to-Order process but at mass produced furniture prices. I like the look of the furniture - it’s unfortunate they can only deliver within the UK.To check out their furniture you can download their catalog here.
For all you creatives looking for more tools to add to your palette: The toucan, er, the Aviary has landed. Worth1000.com, contest site and gallery of artistically photoshopped images, has launched their new collaborative online tool suite Aviary :
Aviary is a platform ecosystem for people who create. It is organized around a suite of rich internet applications geared for artists of all genres. From image editing to typography to music to 3D to video, we have a tool for everything.
And they literally do. Fourteen in fact. The full range of tools includes an image editor, a swatch generator tool and community, a pattern generator tool and community, vector editor, 3D modeller, audio editor, music generator, video editor, desktop publishing layout editor, word processing for creative writers, painting simulator, database network and search engine, a smart online application that can identify complex data about an image based on its pixel pattern, and a custom image product creator that can integrate with other websites. That was a mouthful! Best of all, they’re creating a multimedia marketplace for users to sell the creations they make with their tools.
From the reviews and comments on TechCrunch and Webware I think most people agree that this is an ambitious project, not just for the sheer number of tools but tools competing against desktop apps like Adobe. I think many are excited to see and try it out. They are rolling out each tool as they’re completed. To keep updated or to try for a chance to be a beta user, check out their blog or request an early bird invitation.
Jeffrey Wegesin works fast! It’s been less than two weeks since he shared his first table made via Ponoko on his blog. This is Jeff’s second iteration on his table design, which is a smaller, square version of his first one. I believe he already has orders for his first table (in New Zealand and back in his native home - the U.S.) and most likely will receive many more for this one as well.
Again, a great effort Jeff! It’s so awesome to see some real products materialize from ideas. From what he’s said in his blog, this can be addictive! Having the means and ease of being able to design and create a piece of personalized furniture is totally empowering to say the least.
Our private beta testing has been going extremely well, culminating in a showcase of products designed and made by talented and enthusiastic users, like Jeff, this Thursday the 19th at 5:30 p.m. at The Paramount Theatre in Wellington. Come see for yourself what great designs have become real through Ponoko!
The Guardian: The missing link between the web and the world
Virtual is great. Online information - visual, audio, artistic, technical, and design for learning, networking or pleasure - it’s all wonderful. But sometimes you just really want to sit down (away from a screen) and just physically HOLD something and look at it. You know what I mean?
Here’s an interesting read by Glyn Moody from the Guardian pointing out the “rise of the analogue as the acme of digital cool”. Moody features two on-demand (2D) printing companies that are the “interface between digital and analogue worlds” that create what people want from the web into physical tactile and most importantly, useful things.
First up is Moo.com’s minicards. Not boring old business cards. These fun customized cards are for social online networkers who may actually and physically meet other people (say, on the street or at a party). It’s a simple idea - nothing new or innovative, but it serves a real purpose in the real world - there has to be a better way of exchanging personal info with someone you meet other than scribbling your number/email/blog on the back of a napkin or receipt. Moo cards use the web and your online info - from your photos on flickr or your avatars to anything else you want on your card - your email address, your blog site and prints it out on nice stylish mini cards.
The second is well-established independent publishing marketplace Lulu.com. Again, here’s a great example of taking digital content and transforming it into the physical - physically printed and bound books that you can buy and hold.
What both these companies do, along with a growing number of others, is printing on-demand personalized/user-generated virtual ideas, designs and information. And we’re seeing it grow with the demand for more customized and personal things - like t-shirts and other items. It goes to show that while digital and virtual are definitely the means, we’re very much still rooted in the physical world.
Wired Blogs: Gadget Lab - Voila! Create your own furniture out of thin air
What do you get when you mix performance art with digital and cutting edge manufacturing technology? I bet you wouldn’t have thought of furniture! Swedish design firm FRONT Design mix motion picture digital technology (think of those optical balls velcroed onto actors working in front of a blue screen) with rapid prototyping to create SKETCH furniture. They literally “draw” in the air as cameras capture their lines of motion, digitizing the information into 3D files that are then manufactured through rapid prototyping.
Quite an interesting concept - to actually materialize designs that are made impromptu and free hand. It’s a fascinating way to utilize and create by using the tools that are available today. To see for yourself, here’s a video of their process:
This reminds me of other designers, Marcel Wanders and Geoffrey Mann, whom I’ve read about who use a similar process of rendering motion into something physical through rapid prototyping. They were both featured in the Digitalability festival in Berlin this past May. Here’s a link to Marcel’s video on creating a vase based on a sneeze, accurately called the Airborne Snotty Vase.
via Wired Blog
Gregg Fleishman’s Flatpack House (TreeHugger)
Ikea has proven that people love prefab flatpack furniture - for the convenience, ease of shipping and assembly, design, simplicity and price. Now you can have that same flatpack experience - but with a house. Architect and designer Gregg Fleishman from southern California has designed a flatpack Disaster House and Shelter System made of router-cut European sustainable birch plywood pieces that fit together like a 3D puzzle, requiring no nails, screws or glue. Although it needs some sort of rain cover, it’s still a very cool concept and design. It’s available through Swarm Studios for US$22,000 + tax including assembly.
This 14′ square house could provide the shelter needed for different occasions - for either emergency or fun reasons. Check out his “Playgoda”, a fun and cool option for keeping the kids busy in the backyard. No need to work with countless nails and screws to put the swingset/jungle gym together.
via Treehugger