December 22, 2013 ITEM 66: Pic Steel
This little stick of timber held so much character between its surprising density to its rich colour to the black divot and shiny polished off steel nail remnant that it became its own object. Simply sanded and varnished with a slot cut along its length it becomes a means to compile all the odd bits of notes. Pictured, cards, reminders etc that sit around your side bench.
Tags: Beach house sculpture, driftwood, flotsam, recycled sculpture, repurposed, street found timber, talking point, timber recycling, timber restoration
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December 22, 2013 ITEM 62: Pagoda
A section of eucalyptus flooring became the mid shelf with various bits of a discarded wardrobe utilized to make a hidden base drawer. And angled legs cut from a little plank recovered at the beach. Probably the most interesting feature is the pattern created by some type of wood worm on the inside face. I spray painted this blue then sanded it back to highlight this alien language. Another original feature was the use of Perspex as a backing panel. Cut from a broken sheet I found on my street it introduces a fantastic light quality to the unit. In addition to this light play is the mid shelf being deliberately off set from the rear of the unit to allow light to be evenly spread over the inner rear face. Note also the integration of the restored old school wooden ruler as the back edge to the mid shelf. And the restored/ reshaped corner of the old drawer face. Some old boy had resin bogged a rough corner on years ago and I was able to sand and polish this resin to reform a perfect little corner with all the detail of the resin and previous paint.
Tags: Beach house sculpture, design, driftwood, flotsam, key cabine, modernist, re purposed timber, re-purpose, recycle, recycled sculpture, street found, talking point, timber restoration
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November 17, 2013 Boat 38 Tailbone
A simple well-balanced boat employing a sand and water filled bottle as ballast and hull. A wind rudder (the white foam) is situated over the bow area to assist in pushing her straight. Apart from this there was a wide plywood deck and some bits of a paddle ski (or something?) that gave her some interesting ‘skimming’ qualities as she moved over the water.
Tags: Beach house sculpture, design, driftwood, Flotsam boats, re purposed drift wood, re-purpose, recycled sculpture, sea craft
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July 27, 2013 BOAT 37: The Big Grey
With most of the hull sailing below the waterline this was pretty much a sailing submarine. This would have to be the biggest flotsam boat created to date. And not the prettiest as if that were ever an objective. The first launch was off a rocky point where the fishermen are. But it kept getting caught in some sort of eddy from the exiting Cooks River and messing with the fishing lines. Fearing being stabbed in the eye and gutted by a fisherman I moved over to the beach for a second launch. Where she happily pushed out into the bay and the gloomy horizon of the day for these fantastic shots.
Tags: outdoors
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July 27, 2013 Boat 36: Rainbow Worryer
There was not going to be any tacking this day with an on shore wind into a horseshoe beach. But not worried about this minor detail and fighting off the sense of futility I commenced to put this tall ship together. I gave it a few test sail of the rocks. But not able to send it out I turned it over to these two fellas who seemed surprisingly interested to push it around while swimming.
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July 27, 2013 Boat 35: TACK
This was the second boat on the Cooks River on this day and was even more satisfying than the first. By setting the rudder to about 1130 and adding an extended sail from the starboard I was able to get this quickly produced vessel of scrounged rubbish to actually tack across the wind. The extended sail kept swinging the bow out away from shore with a burst of inertia sustained by the weight of the keel that pushed out across the wind each time. I launched a Styrofoam boat from the shore into an onshore wind and got it to tack its way down the coast even gaining against the wind as it went until further along it was well of the shore.
Tags: 5 minute challenge, master and commander, naval architecture, recycling, tacking on the Cooks River
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July 26, 2013 BOAT 34: REVA PEG
Boat ‘34’ took about 5 minutes to scrounge the bits along the shore of the Cooks River and push it together. The river was flowing swiftly but in the opposite direction to a stiff breeze running just off the side I was on. The result was the hypnotizing slow motion effect of the boat not just running bow against the current but holding almost dead level! Though pointing up river the boat very slightly moved away from the shore and ultimately crossed the river sailing against the current and moving slowly side wards. It looks as though it is stationary until you see the debris in the water shooting from bow to stern and the wake ripple coming of the stern. If you watch the movie take special note of my sons excitement regarding my achievement.
Tags: cooks river, little boats
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July 5, 2013 ITEM 61: NOW PLAYING LP
After the surprising success of ‘ITEM 17 Now Playing’ comes ITEM 61 Now Playing LP. Item 17 was a CD case display that turned out to be very handy and commented on with approval by many! I was subsequently on the lookout for an appropriate piece of drift or street wood to do an upscale version for LPs.
I came across this wedge of tree trunk, chainsaw cut on the perfect angle with the heart wood core creating a great form across the face (looks a bit like the soccer world cup trophy). The sides were hit with a stiff brush only and the face orange spray coloured then sanded back. Some dry rot was drilled out and wax filled in black and orange. Two holding pegs were doweled into the final varnished face. Much work went into a base stand that in house design control advised against using in the end. Even more so than CDs it is an opportunity to display album cover artwork as a rotating exhibition.
Tags: Beach house sculpture, driftwood, flotsam, LPs, Records, repurposed, sculpture, Stereo Hi Fi Gear, street found, street found timber, streetwood, timber restored, vinyl
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April 1, 2013 Item 60: Cocamaphone 1.25
OK so you’ve got Roland Kirk turned up to 11 on the house system so you can hear it clear out the back where you are in the zone. But your wife and kids are inside becoming emotionally unmanageable because it’s too loud and far out for them. So you sacrifice quality for compromise and take your phone outside to listen to music on that instead. But the zone is a hostile environment and a hot LZ for an iphone. Sun, flying frag, potential toxic fluid flicks and rain drops. Voila, enter the Cocamaphone. Cut the top of a 1.25 litre plastic coke bottle. Has to be Coke shape to get the amplifying funnel acoustics. Bore a hole in the side of the base and insert the top you cut off. Screw the lid back onfrom insideto secure it all and have the top sliced of the lid to allow the sound out. Chuck some paint on the top half for UV barrier. Drill a couple of holes in the fluted base to allow any water out in case of Perfect Storm scenario. Slice rim and fold out as shown to allow stand and added amp. I have been experimenting for a while and it makes a big diff (louder) if the phone speaker is pushed hard to the hack of the Cocamaphone.
The Cocamaphone actually achieves the following with phone inserted:
– Good stability from rolling and knocking.
– Better visibility of phone location (could paint brighter or funkier colour scheme!) and thus reduced inadvertent mech damage.
– Better base vibes and good volume amplification.
– Sun protection.
– Good rain splash and splatter protection. The fluting in the base of PET bottles means any water that gets in will never touch phone before it heads out your drain holes. Don’t forget the drain holes.
– Good buffering from flying and or falling objects.
I devised this DIY quick and cheapie for the workplace but I reckon it would go well at the beach, picnics in the park etc etc.
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March 30, 2013 ITEM 33: Newtown Alps
Lengths of street recovered hardwood decking were re purposed into a bathroom window fascia and in the process of mitering the corners I ended up with all the character packed little triangles of various sizes. It was almost impossible not to fiddle with them and keep reconfiguring them into little arrangements and stacks. I shttps://saltandwood.wordpress.com/?p=1230&preview=trueoon realized they were worthy of being there own item. I varnished the face and painted one edge white.
Tags: Beach house sculpture, design, driftwood, re purposed timber, recycle, sculpture, street found, street found timber, streetwood
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March 30, 2013 Boat 33: Botobsticle
Its been a while between boats but managed to throw this clunker together over the Easter weekend at a cracking Autumn day down at Yarra Bay. Followed by a swim. No great new triumphs of technology to reference here. But she sailed well and zigzagged out beyond sight quite quickly. Zigzagging as the rudder setting and sail alignment competed for dominance. Named by my son for the number of snags I hit in trying to put it together.
Tags: Beach house sculpture, Boat, design, driftwood, flotsam, flotsam boat, hydrodynamics, recycled sculpture, sea craft
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March 29, 2013 ITEM 16: PHAT JOEL
Who can say where this wedge washed over board or for how long it floated around in the ocean. Sometimes it takes very little to generate something beautiful. Simply trimming the nose square and drilling and doweling a couple of timber pins to compensate for the big centre split (pin striping). The sides and rear retain the character of its travels while the top and bottom were sanded and varnished revealing great character and a beautiful rich golden timber that I have not identified. It also sports an interesting little rebate in one side from some past purpose. It was probably a door jam on a boat. It could be a door jam again or maybe just a sculptural talking piece. Phat Joel because I made it as a request piece for a guy named Joel who is Phat but not fat.
Tags: Beach house sculpture, driftwood, flotsam, re purposed drift wood, re-purpose, recycled, sculpture, timber recycling, timber restored
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March 21, 2013 ITEM 27: Salt Shelf
Bower (A donated materials and objects enterprise on Addison Road) recovered timber mantle cut and varnished. Bay found flotsam has been doweled to main shelf to create legs.
Tags: Beach house sculpture, driftwood, flotsam, modernist, re purposed timber, re-purpose, street found timber, style, talking point, timber recycling, timber restored
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March 21, 2013 ITEM 32: DECO
The Inter War Deco Architectural style is a personal favorite of mine and many of the best examples around Sydney are the beautiful pubs built in that style by the hot young Architects of the day and paid for by the cashed up breweries of that era that still owned most of the pubs. Stepped roofs, patterned facades and horizontal patterning, coloured tiles and geometrically even curves reminiscent of the older P&O Liners are but a tad of the magic. This is a little homage I whipped together from these two drawers and various other bits of street and bay found flotsam. Engineering wise this piece is interesting because the drawers are mounted pointing out to the sides. This created all sorts of shenanigans with regard to imagining a sturdy structural compilation. You can see I pushed the 1970’s handles aside for something more befitting the Inter War Deco design objective. These are the same type of handles I salvaged for the Tiki Lounge Key Cabin (a recent post). The paint colours are also intended to be reminiscent of some c1935 pub tile colours.
Tags: Beach house sculpture, design, flotam, Inter War Deco, key cabine, re purposed timber, recycled sculpture, sculpture, street found timber, style, talking point
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January 22, 2013 Item 31: DB 11 5
This was probably a medicine cabinet complete with spilled iodine stains. Guessing from the craftsman’s stamp found under the paint it was put together in either May 1911 or September 1905? By DB? The other mysterious stamp is the ‘HO EC’ on the left side.
I found this in a back lane in Petersham Covered in layers of old paint and full of a colony of insects including Redback Spiders. After some meticulous stick flicking the cabinet was declared non-deadly and mounted on the back of my motorbike with a couple of ocky straps.
Just to be clear this was a rescue mission rather than a sculptural re purposing of accumulated components, as would generally be the intent of the item projects. And thus the character of the piece is more akin to its original intent and crafting some 100+ years ago!
Basically I was able to knock many of the joints apart and give it all a sanding. It still had what are probably the original hinges and screws though the door handle and latch were long gone with the housing rebate the only clue. The inside face of the side walls have multiple shelf slots but only two shelves leading me to guess this is a mass produced component to suit different uses.
The back panel was badly cracked and thus replaced. Where the wood was badly stained for various reasons I spray painted white and set up a contrast with the natural timber grain components. The whole unit seems to be a combination of pine and some sort of White Cedar? I put together an additional component that was fitted into the top rear to stabilize the whole structure and provide a secure mounting area to wall hang the unit. A little extra half shelf was incorporated into this. The white knob was some random street find.
Tags: Beach house sculpture, re purposed, street found, timber, timber recycling, timber restoration
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