Tag Archives: timber
April 7, 2014 Item 54: Quality Endorsed
This is the end scrap of a laminated timber post that I pulled out of a skip bin. It already embodied loads of character with pre pencil rounded edges, laminated striping and zig zag joins. I applied some simple cross cut ideas to yet another CD stand. Utilising no other elements but the post itself to generate the functioning sculptural body. The rest was finishing the timber to bring out the colour and texture. It has an ink stamp on the side and a pressure stamp added to the base. The separate bits were glued and then I dropped a few long countersunk screws up through the base to ensure a 1000 year shelf life.
Tags: Beach house sculpture, cafe furniture, design, driftwood, flotsam, lamp, modernist, re purposed drift wood, re-purpose, repurposed, street found timber, style, timber, timber restored
- 2 comments
- Posted under Item, Wood
March 25, 2014 Item 72: Now Playing CD 2
I know I know who listens to CDs anymore? Well me and besides they are the new retro item after LPs! And making these stands is strangely addictive. In this case the third element of the resting pins has been deleted by arranging the legs such that they also do the job of supporting the CD for display of cover art and always knowing where the cover is. ITEM 72 is formed from a chunk of hardwood found washed up on the beach and a piece of ply that looked like it came off a yacht judging from the type of varnish it retained. I sanded and varnished one face of the block retaining the other 5 surfaces as found and cut slots for the legs I cut out of the ply scrap. And voila, ITEM 72.
Tags: Beach house sculpture, cafe furniture, cd display, design, driftwood, flotsam, LP, music, re purposed drift wood, re-purpose, repurposed, timber, timber restored
- Leave a comment
- Posted under Item, Wood
March 24, 2014 NOTE 1
So no ITEM produced here, just sharing some of the SALT AND WOOD experience! In this case a kind of ‘day in the life’ picture summary of the strange and interesting things one encounters when hunting about for materials for a next project.
“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar: I love not man less, but nature more”.
Rochdale ^18 Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, canto 4, stanza178.
Tags: Beach house sculpture, cafe furniture, design, driftwood, flotsam, lamp, re purposed drift wood, re-purpose, recycle, repurposed, Storm Rider, timber, timber restored
- Leave a comment
- Posted under Notes
February 2, 2014 Item 73: Cargo Lamp 2
Compiled from street found lamp fittings, a retro Australian made (*439 DÉCOR Australia) orange plastic flowerpot and flotsam washed up around Sydney Harbour. The blue parts look like they might have been some sort of packing palette, the legs and edge trim look like they are probably fittings broken from a yacht. The rudder (I couldn’t resist) was cut from a ply panel again most likely off a yacht or cruiser. Angled legs and curved corners and it all culminated in this fun little sculpture/ complimentary colour lamp/ phone and wallet spot!
Tags: Beach house sculpture, cafe furniture, design, driftwood, flotsam, lamp, re purposed drift wood, re-purpose, repurposed, timber, timber restored
- Leave a comment
- Posted under Item, Wood
February 2, 2014 Item 15: Cargo Lamp
This very dense block of hardwood (maybe Eucalyptus?) was discovered hiding deep inside the rocks of a wave break wall. After a month or so of drying in the sun I cut away the top surface and one end to reveal the grain. The whole unit was split long ways from the base so a series of timber pegs were employed to cross dowel the block. To enhance the sense of the maritime, a simple long slot was cut along the front and back face. Something like the Plimsoll Line of a ships hull (http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/episode-33-a-cheer-for-samuel-plimsoll/). The area below the line sanded and painted. The areas above the line left as the day they were found. A router was used to cut simple slots in the base into which rail legs were fitted. The legs were restored from timber salvaged from discarded garden furniture. The lampshade was found on the streets of Newtown and a shower rod end was used to mount it in the deck. The red cord was purchased in Copenhagen a year ago and the plug end is new. Add some light fittings (street recovered) and voila the Cargo Lamp.
Tags: Beach house sculpture, cafe furniture, design, driftwood, flotsam, re purposed drift wood, re-purpose, repurposed, timber, timber restored
- Leave a comment
- Posted under Item, Wood
January 30, 2014 Item 71: CD Robot
This small simple sculpture is a continuation from Item 61: Now Playing LP. A combination of some street found fine brass rod and a cube of character packed timber and remnants of a Chinese shrine washed up on a Sydney beach. The cube was brushed all round and sanded on 2 sides with only the face being finally sealed to bring out the peculiar end grain. The beauty of it for me is the not knowing what construction project this little cube is a bi product of or where in the world it floated here from or even what species of tree it is derived from.
THIS ITEM HAS SOLD
Tags: Beach house sculpture, cafe furniture, design, driftwood, flotsam, re purposed drift wood, re-purpose, repurposed, timber, timber restored
- Leave a comment
- Posted under 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
- 3 comments
- Posted under HQ Cabinet, Item, Wood
March 4, 2012 Item 21: Crest
I don’t know what sort of timber this is or where it came from. But it looks like it is just a by-product of some chain saw clearing somewhere in the world. It looks like it had been in the sea for some time. I set it to dry on our front porch and with each week a few more little bits of shells fell out of the cracks as it dried and shrank. I finally drilled the side of it and fitted a piece of street found dowel as a ring holder on what was to become a soap bottle stand for the bathroom. I fitted a small dowel foot to the base to both level the top and minimize the amount of base in contact with wet bench. I left all the sides as they were found and intensely sanded and varnished the top to create a great contrast. My wife questions the practicality of this item but I am quietly pleased with its sculptural nature and the mystery of the origins of this piece of tree.
Tags: carpentry, flotsam, legacy, Man Shelf, recycling, street found, timber
- Leave a comment
- Posted under Item, Wood
salt and wood 