Several of my clients have asked for tables made with wood (walnut) and steel. I’ve been contracting out the welding jobst, but in the meantime I’m teaching myself how to weld. This site has taught me a lot and is a fun read: http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/
“The stack of dimes look”, as show in this video, is one of my goals:
I have to thank Reclaimed Home for helping me restore the vintage light switch in my new apartment. It was caked with multiple layers of paint. I boiled it for about twenty minutes in water and baking soda. Paint slid right off and I didn’t have to use carcinogenic stripper with a gas mask. Here are the directions from Reclaimed Home: Boiling Hardware.
If you’re interested in helping Bklyn’s environment and using your roof for something tasty like veggies, check out the green roofing workshop by Green It Yourself and Eco Brooklyn. They offer intensive and semi-intensive classes from $300 to $600. For basic info, look into their free class on August 8th. Additionally, if you’re interested in green roofing as a profession, check out greenroof.org to learn about the industry and becoming accredited.
Instructables is a great site for D.I.Y. types. One of their recent posts teaches you how to make a bench from cardboard, which has actually become a material of choice for many designers lately. The builder of this bench mentioned that he was inspired by the work of Brooklyn’s very own Scrapile. Aside from being an easy project, this tutorial also has a sustainable benefit if it’s done with reclaimed cardboard. The author also testifies to the bench’s strength, saying that it can support three adults. But just keep it keep away from water. Visit the tutorial here and download a pdf with instructions.
SCRAPILE ’s benches made with repurposed scraps of wood from New York’s woodworking industry. Visit their site here.
This site’s stats show that a lot of visitors are searching for plans to build modern furniture. In response, I’ve added a new widget on the right hand side that lists places where you can buy them. If you’re in Brooklyn, Tools for Working Wood, a store I just visited to buy wood bleach, has some interesting books on how to build modern furniture. They also have a very comprehensive selection of high end tools.
Fan cover repurposed into a Noguchi-style lamp.
In the article below from TimeOut , Rodney Trice of T.O.M.T. explains how to repurpose a fan cover into a Noguchi lamp. This project is très Brooklyn in that a lot of local designers are working in this vein. However, Trice is actualy teaching the how to salvage objects at Brooklyn workshop. His website has a list of classes and features a variety his work. Contact him at rodney@tomtinc.com.
The item: Old, broken fan cover
Found: St. Johns Place and Washington Avenue, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
The process: “As with all of my projects, a good degreasing was necessary,” says T.O.M.T. designer Rodney Trice (who was just named one of Time’s Green Design 100). “Next was to make sure it dried out well, and then I moved on to the removal of unnecessary parts. There was a handle that needed to be sawed off and the center ring with the logo was also removed.
“I was inspired by the very famous and beautiful Noguchi paper lanterns, so I decided to create a hanging lamp with a fabric cover stretched over the fan cage. This particular cage separated into two pieces, making the job of fitting the fabric a lot easier. I chose a stretch wool because it offered the kind of flexibility I needed without looking cheap. The fabric was measured, cut and then sewn to fit the shape—and then was pulled tight with a simple drawstring inside so as to give it a nice, taut appearance.
“I wired the lamp with three candelabra bulb sockets and screwed in small soft fluorescent bulbs with a candelabra attachment.
“The two halves of the lamp were put back together, and voilà! My tribute to Noguchi!
“Now that I made this, I’m on the lookout for more of these fan cages, because I am going to do more and hang them in groups of three in different shapes.”
The materials: Stretch wool ($14 per yard) at Mood Fabric (225 W 37th St between Seventh and Eighth Aves, 212-730-5003), and lamp parts: gold fabric wire ($5), brass chandelier canopy ($10), candelabra sockets ($3), threaded tube ($1) and bulbs ($5) all at grandbrass.com.
The venerable Isamo Noguchi
The inspiration: Trice riffed on legendary sculptor Isamu Noguchi’s Akari Light Sculptures, and New Yorkers can see the Japanese-American artist’s work all year long at the Noguchi Museum in Queens, where thirteen indoor galleries showcase his organic, undulating works in granite, marble, bronze and wood. Adjoining gardens offer a natural setting for some of Noguchi’s granite and basalt sculptures. But nothing impresses so much as the room dedicated to Noguchi’s illuminated Akari sculptures—in situ, the lamps take on the appearance of spectral moths. And, if you hurry, you can catch “What Is Sculpture? Akari from the 1986 Venice Biennale,” a special exhibit dedicated to the light sculptures (on view until May 31). Want one of your own? The museum shop sells Akari table lanterns for as little as $75. The Noguchi Museum, 9-01 33rd Rd at Vernon Blvd, Long Island City, Queens (718-204-7088)
A few days ago, the producers of The Learning Channel’s Moving Up contacted me. They were gutting a N.J. house for a new couple and wanted to upcycle wood paneling from the house into a coffee table. With little time execute, I teamed up with Roger Benton of Benton Custom. Together, at Brooklyn’s 3rd Ward, we denailed the paneling, ripped it into 2″ strips, and glued it into an 8-ft butcher block. The legs were cut and doweled into the top. A belt sander removed the splinters and two coats of poly sealed it up. It went quickly. This is a good D.I.Y. project for any builder (small amount of tooling, cheap supplies). Plus it’s green. Incidentally, there are lots of designers exploring plywood. Check some out: Scrapile, Julia Krantz, Desfurniture.
Here’s the 1970’s wood paneling. Remember Calvin Klein shoots back in 2000.
Assembled and finished. Perhaps 4hrs of labor.
Last week, I posted a story on buying reclaimed wood from Brooklyn’s M. Fine Lumber. There was a big number of clicks on that article, so I’ve posted this tutorial on how to make a table from reclaimed wood. The plan is from Instructables, an amazing website that teaches you how to build anything (incidentally, there’s a D.I.Y. section in the lower right corner of this site). If you’re interested in seeing more furniture made from reclaimed wood, visit Benton Custom and RG Furniture Designs.
Inhabitat.com, a cool site that features trends in sustainable design, posted an interesting story on David Stark’s cardboard installations used for the opening of a West Elm store. While the pieces are decorative, they relate to a d.i.y. cardboard furniture video I posted a while back.
Stark, who has designed events for clients like Rachel Ray, Conde Nast, Target, and Nicole Miller, has lots of experience in forward thinking design. This newest exhibition takes a look at the materials that go into showcasing and shipping West Elm’s products and reuses them. Each item is unique and entirely made from recycled shipping materials.
One great thing about furniture design and carpentry is that the fundamentals haven’t changed much over the past 200 years. I searched Google’s books and found some titles that can be downloaded in their entirety because their copyrights expired. Check out Rustic Carpentry and Cyclopedia of Architecture Carpentry.
