January 17, 2009

Scrapwood Obama

Filed under: Art,Automobiles by Branko Collin @ 1:21 pm

Diederick Kraaijeveld makes art out of scrapwood, and he is exhibiting this wooden depiction of the next president of the USA, Barack Obama, at the Manifest Hope Washington in the American capital this weekend. Kraaijeveld who operates under the pseudonym Oud Hout (old wood) writes about the piece:

The tie of Obama was made of fishing boat wood, found on the beaches of Mombassa, Kenia.

I will take the work—all 120 centimeters of it—along with me on the plane as hand luggage which is cheaper than shipping it. Especially since the organisation was kind enough to provide sleeping arrangements in DC. This is a beautiful opportunity for somebody like me who once studied American History: to be present at a historical inauguration. No, I don’t expect to be in the front row.

Check the rest of the website where you’ll find a scrapwood Volkswagen Beetle, a scrapwood Porsche, a scrapwood Ruud van Nistelrooij, scrapwood Converse Allstars, and much more lovely iconopornography. Scrapwood: not just for furniture anymore.

Link: Trendbeheer (Dutch). Image edited to restore an approximation of the original by removing an unsightly watermark.

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January 10, 2009

Fake scrapwood furniture by Studio Ditte

Filed under: Design by Branko Collin @ 11:48 am

In 1990 Piet Hein Eek made his first cupboard from reclaimed scrapwood and the rest, as they say, is history. Soon you couldn’t step into a somewhat upmarket furniture store without stumbling into one or two scrapwood items. The only problem with these, and one that’s persisted ever since, is despite that they’re made out of garbage they’re so damned expensive.

Studio Ditte came up with a solution in the form of scrapwood print. They basically sell the print in the shape of wallpaper (black, white and green), which at a price of 200 euro per roll is still pretty expensive to my taste. Their next step though was to take second hand furniture and refurbish it with their scrapwood wallpaper. “For that extra-lived in feeling,” they say. At the time of writing their tiny Recycle Recycle range is almost sold out, but this small cupboard can still be had for 120 euro, and there’s also a small table left for 60 euro.

Via Bright (Dutch). See also this article at Apartment Therapy. Photo: Studio Ditte.

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