Tag Archives: Beach house sculpture
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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- Posted under Item, Wood
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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- Posted under Item, Wood
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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- Posted under Boat, Salt
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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- Posted under HQ Cabinet, Item, Wood
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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- Posted under HQ Cabinet, Item, Wood
October 19, 2012 ITEM 20: Met the Jetsons
This piece of ply with cedar (?) spine was found among the rocks along Botany Bay. It seems like it was some type of storage box cover off a boat. The sea had honed it to a clichéd modernist trapezoid shape. I lightly sanded the underside to remove lose flakes but retain the paint history then stamped and varnished it. The top side ply was not that attractive after cutting and varnishing so it was attacked with the bright gloss orange paint to great effect. The legs were rescued from a table thrown on the street near Enmore road and simply sanded back and oiled. With the internal corner mounting brackets also rescued and reemployed into this item. The timber bracing is cut from two pieces of restored beach found timber. Also likely off a boat given the strong and light nature of this timber (?). The timber bracing was chiseled into the legs. And the little spine cut into the bracing. The odd height proportion is a comfortable standing use table. Say for drinks at a party.
Tags: Beach house sculpture, modernist, re-purpose, recycle
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- Posted under Item, Wood
October 1, 2012 Item 29: Long Toe
This hardwood wedge was found washed up along Botany Bay. It is interesting for its long concave elf shoe proportion and was just a sanding and varnishing exercise to bring out its inner beauty. It now takes pride of place as our front door wedge.
Tags: Beach house sculpture, re purposing, sculpture, talking point
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- Posted under Item, Wood