Here is a little more about the Kauri wood that I posted earlier. I was contacted by a sales representative from Ancientwood wondering if I would be interested in ever using Kauri on any of my projects. The answer was yes, though I have yet to convince any clients to use some (any takers?). The wood runs somewhere in the ballpark of $35 a board foot, is very pretty, and comes with an awesome story. They sell it in slabs, timbers, flooring, veneers, ply, natural edge . . . pretty much anything product you want or can get from wood.
Kauri is protected in New Zealand (Kauri is only found there) so it can’t be harvested like normal. Someone realized that vast old forests lay buried just below the surface of the ground in peat swamps. It’s been there for more than 45,000 thousand years they say, preserved all this time by the peat. Long story short, with the use of very large machinery they dig this out of the ground. They usually only harvest the lower trunk section and ball root structure, as the part of the log above ground long ago decayed. So, the trunks tends to be “V” shaped. Occasionally they do find complete rounds deeper in the ground. The video pretty much says the rest.
What fascinates me more than anything is the size of slabs that you can get from theses logs. Working with a slab with a natural edge gives you different possibilities and stands alone as nothing in my opinion is needed to adorn it. You can see this from my Potentate piece. For more on Kauri you can visit Ancientwood’s site or click here to go straight to the “story” section.
“Beauty is a form of genius– is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation. It is one of the great facts of the world, like sunlight, or spring-time, or the reflection in dark waters of that silver shell we call the moon. It cannot be questioned. It has it’s divine right of sovereignty . . . People say sometimes that beauty is only superficial. That may be so, but at least it is not so superficial as thought is. To me beauty is the wonder of wonders, it is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.” – Oscar Wilde
This is an excerpt from The Picture of Dorian Gray. I found it to be thought provoking and would love to hear your thoughts.
I am well over due for a post and an update with the disc. 2010 has already been extremely busy with multiple projects, and the disc hasn’t been one of them. One project is for yours truly and I will share that when I am finished. With another, I was put back a little due to the rodents that have been trying to run me out of my shop and ate (seriously) a portion of the plans I needed. Needless to say, some redesigning had to take place (that’s what I get for not scanning my stuff and keeping an electronic file). I am getting back on top of things and will be moving forward, including a new t-shirt design come February. In the mean time I hope this post will hold you over.
After perusing pictures from the imm cologne trade fair for interiors, I pulled some of my favorites to share with you. All and all, I liked what I saw. An underlining theme of grids and extremely clean lines suited me well. Lots of solid, undiluted colors, but not loud and in your face, with more grays and blacks than in the past.
The general idea of this chair has been around, but I loved the combinations and transitions of the material used. Nice mix of fabric, plastic, and wood. The long straight lines of the wood grain play in perfectly with the design as well. Exhibited by Dolphin Home.
Couch exhibited by Molinari.
Loved this playful chair titled “Trickery” but not sure whom it was exhibited by.
I don’t like the proportions on this table exhibited by Scholtissek. The legs seem overbearing but I love how thin the table top is. It creates a very interesting look. I would love to know how this is constructed to have the strength needed across the distance of the table.
Though I like the look of that thin table, I am a sucker for solid slab. Kauri is an ancient wood (50,000 years) that they dig out of the ground. I will post a video and a little more about this wood later. I was contacted by a sales rep who sent me a sample and have to say that it is a pretty wood. Obviously the slab and chairs were exhibited by Kauri.
I’ve asked myself why I like this clock so much and I really have yet to come up with a good answer. Perhaps it’s the boy in me coming out. What boy doesn’t like toys, especially a large quantity of them. I got this from Dezeen a couple days ago and had to share it.
Ryan McElhinney makes this grandfather clock that is covered in plastic toys. The actual clock is a Westminster Chiming Grandfather Clock. The toys are bonded together and coated in a white polyurethane. Apparently some of the toys still light up or make sounds when the appropriate button is pushed.
We have had an inversion of sorts here in the valley, and it has been foggy and wet for far too long. I only tell you this because I take pictures with a north facing window that lights my projects. Well, the light has been poor and these photos don’t read as I would like them to.
I debated between various options of what to use the disc for, and the top two were a fruit bowl or a hanging chandelier. It was hard to decide between the two, but in the end I felt that this piece was better as a bowl. This will be best suited for an island or a large table were it can rest as a functional piece or simply an artistic piece. Due to the weight, I wouldn’t recommend this to someone who would have to pick it up and move it to make the kitchen or whatever functional.
Basically all that needs to happen to make it into a fruit bowl is base. I will be using wood, and if I can find hardware that will match I might even have multiple tiers with glass shelves above the steel. The wood will be turned on a lathe specifically to match this disc. I have yet to decide on the species, but I will probably go with a lighter color to contrast the steel. On the disc I used up about half the metal brush and was successful in removing anything that was protruding out. I also removed all the dirt and most of the excess rust. I stopped it where I did because the pocks were too deep and I liked the natural patina look the steel received after years of weathering. Once the metal brush stopped removing material, I took steel wool and buffed the whole disc to give it a uniform look. To keep it from returning to a rusted mess and for easy clean up, I will coat the disc with a resin of sorts.
These are line drawings I did while exploring options and they are not to scale, proportionate, or even containing the proper amount of notches along the edge. It does however show what I will be doing and roughly what it will look like.
These photos show the actual coloring and how the low spots still feature the rust . The top is the best out of the two.
