Alcarol's Beautiful use of Resin Casting for Furniture

Alcarol is a design and fabrication studio which is doing amazing work with resin casting to preserve unique features in wood in stone.  

Marble ways table is made by using the sacrifical table from stone cutting.  When the table bed is too marred from cutting it is replaced.  Acarol is casting these slabs into beautiful tables, preserving the natural kerf marks as well as the stone and sawdust in the process.  (via Core 77)

This video from Vimeo shows the entire process.

Marble Ways from alcarol on Vimeo.

 Fisheye are made from the columns from the canals of Venice which are eaten by worms

Undergrowth captures the moss and lichens which grow naturally on the trees and are encapsulated to form the edge of shelves.

JAM Furniture from Reclaimed Wood

Short video about Ben Cramp and his path to making furniture from reclaimed lumber under the name JAM Furniture.

What resonated with me is that he talks about how he enjoyed industrial design, but realized that the future of that, were he to stay in that industry, would be behind a desk.  By shifting to his own work, he can do the design and the building which he finds more fulfilling.



JAM - A SHORT FILM from Fine Rolling Media on Vimeo.

via Core 77

Cassette Tape table from Skierka designs Now Available

I'd previously written about this amazing cassette tape table from Jeff Skierka.It's a 30' x 47 1/4 maple, Baltic birch plywood and walnut table with a glass top.  

It's now available for purchase form Jeff's website, Jeff Skierka Designs for $4950.   From the video they've released to accompany the sale of the table, they've modified the design to use ply wood and CNC machines to do the detial work.

The video below provides some idea of the steps and labor involved in creating this table. Even if the parts are cut using a machine, the work involved in this table is immense.

"If it doesn't flip, it's not a true tape. It has to flip. It's a tape."

- Jeff Skierka 

Link Dump

• What's My Wood- The Wood Database- By Woodworkers, For Woodworkers
• Skull Nickles (Colossal)
• Accessible use of Colour in Web Design
• ADD Designer (Core 77)
• Gorgeous Detailed Hand Lettering (Visual News)

For the kids

• Deep Sea Angler Lamp Made from Recycled Objects (Colossal)
• Hermit Crab Migration video
• Send Super Awesome Sylvia to Maker Faire (Boing Boing)
• Enormous Daddy Long Legs Overtake Seattle Center Armory (Colossal)

Maple Keyboard from Oree

I love wooden products so this keyboard was a no brainer.

It's from Oree and available in maple and walnut.  For only £125GBP ($200 USD) it an be yours.

It's gorgeous, but I can't see how it works.  It appears the keys are fixed as part of the middle plank, so there's not springing mechanism to make them type.

According to Design Boom  its "bluetooth equipped portable wireless keyboard made from a single piece of premium maple and walnut. each unit is cut into three sheets to preserve the wood grain across the shell.."

Large Wooden Ball and Slab Sculptures from Holamon Studios

Excellent large wooden sculptures by Keith Holamon from Holamon Studios. These sculptures are made from the root balls and other pieces of large scrap wood.
The balls are approximately 2ft in diameter or 6 ft 3inches around (good old Pi).   While the slabs vary in size. See the videos after the jump for more examples and how the balls are made on one serious lathe.

14ft x 10f Poplar circles

Maple Ripple 2 ft in diameter

Oak Slab

 
Big Wooden Ball Project from Mike Leuis on Vimeo. Vimeo Via Found Shit

Cassette Tape table from Skierka designs

I love this table from Jeff Skierka designs.   Its a beautiful piece made from maple and walnut.   Even though the inside is somewhat hollow, at 5 inches thick, this table has to weigh a fair bit.

Description from his site:

This coffee table is a 12:1 scaled replica of a cassette tape. It is made of reclaimed maple, walnut and lucite. Dimensions are 47.25" x 30" x 5" with a 3/8" plexi top. This is a first prototype and one of a kind table. Future versions will be CNC machined out of high grade plywood with a variety of ply combinations and a glass top. This table has been an obsession of mine for 5 years! It is amazing to finally have it come to fruition. The table is completely reversible (sides A and B).  We are working to get this into production soon. Both plywood and handmade hardwood versions will be available.

Visit his site to see more designs and get put on his mailing list.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amazing Wood

I love wood.  I'm fascinated by it's properties, colors, grains and what people can do with wood.  Below are some beautiful pieces from some amazing craftsman

Boefloor

Using wood scanning systems, the manufacturer optimizes the use of each board by cutting along the unique lines that a tree gives providing a truly unique product. Sadly, it doesn't appear to yet be available in America.

Splinter Bike 

Splinter bike is an all wood bike crafted by hand by Michael Thompson and will be ridden by James Tully in an attempt to break the land speed record.  This amazing piece of engineering has been hand crafted and uses no metal fasteners.

Kinetic Marble Track

A project that you can build, this marble track is the baddest of kids toys, running around the entire room.

The Floris Wubben upside down chair and upside down lounge chair

These stunning chairs were made using inverted willow trees.

"The legs have been obtained by twisting and splinting its branches and letting it dry into the final shape.  The seat and back were naturally kept in line with the bole’s silhouette. This project had been put in practice jointly with the artist Bauke."