The chair.

I finally finished it! About a year ago I came up with the idea of making a chair out of cans. At first, the idea was to make the entire chair out of cans only. Then I discovered the existence of  “recycle design”. I learned how designers make the most beautiful designs using recycled products. One of the most interesting designers would definitely be Max McMurdo with his bath tub couches.

If you’ve never heard of recycle design, Google it. You don’t want to miss out on so many beautiful designs, which (most of them) you can also make YOURSELF!

That brings me to another topic. Do it yourself. It is a super popular concept these days. And that is so fun about recycle design. Most of the designs are made for everyone. Designed to make one yourself. These days, design is for everyone and everyone can be a designer. And that, ladies an gentleman, was one of the main goals I wanted to achieve in  my chair design. Something that makes the chair YOUR design.

So lets stop talking and start showing. This is what I came up with. You can buy this chair as a package. You’ll get the wood only. What YOU have to do is recycle cans. The chair is built to use 6 cans per layer, but if you want to use up all space, you can. You can paint the cans. You can paint the wood. Or you can just keep it simple. Its YOUR design.

For the people living in Holland. There will be an exhibition in Hilversum February 8th 2013. My chair will be exhibited and sold. Well, ill try to sell it… if possible.

Link to the exhibition here: http://kringloopblik.nl/talentvolblik

These pictures where made by: Dominique van Ee fotografie.

The chair - part 3.1 - Do you recycle?

 

 

I have been drawing and drawing for the last couple of days. Idea’s popping out every minute, constantly writing them down. The design of the chair is getting there. But I came across a question I couldn’t really answer. For whom do I make this chair? Is there a group of people from – for example – a certain age or family composition that recycle the most? Is there a group that could be more interested in my recycle chair then others? If I knew that, then I could adjust my whole project to this group. If there are only young people involved, there could be a totally different design then people with an age around 60.

So here was the question. To which audience is recycling targeted?

I just made a survey on the internet to get myself some answers on this question. I ask you guys to fill in the survey for me. I would really appreciate it! It takes less than a minute! If you really want to help me, please send the survey to your friends! The results will be on one of the chair posts of course!

Here is the survey:

http://www.enquetemaken.be/toonenquete.php?id=128030&p=1&zelf=0

 

THANK YOU! YOU”RE REALLY HELPING ME!

The chair - part 2 - Eat more canned Food!

I had read all of your comments on my other chair post. Thank you so much for reading and commenting, because I got some pretty good ideas from you guys! For example, Anna Sandoiu showed me a beautiful designed chair. I really got inspired by the frame, which was inspired by Patrick Collingwood (the designer) his favorite boat! That made me think about what I want the chair to look like. So I started sketching and writing down ideas.

 

 

I was thinking, frame, frame, what if… I wanted to focus on the frame. So then I got a great Idea! what if, I could design a frame, that is cheap to produce. Which will make the buyer recycle?! So they’d buy an unfinished chair, that can be made personal by finishing it with recycled products. For example, cans! Every household uses canned food. soup, tomatoes, beans, you name it. So what if you started collecting them and putting them in your chair?

Cause what you guys didn’t know, is that I asked my teacher if she new any place where I can get a lot of recyclable products. She happened to have connections with a can factory! The factory agreed to give me 300 cans. The cans were probably the manufacturing defect ones!! So now I can make a prototype! SO EXCITED!

 

In the next few weeks I will be working on the design of the chair. I was already having some ideas, but just got a totally new design idea just now… next time I’ll try to have the designs I thought of all in one post, then you guys tell me which one was the best!

 

                         

 

Also, I’ll be going to the FabLab in Amsterdam! Most of you guys don’t know what it is so let me explain:

The FabLab is a lab in Amsterdam. They actually have a lot of machines you can use as –for example- a designer. You can make a reservation to go work there, there are no costs for using the equipment, only the material you want to use will cost you money! So everyone is able to use the machines there. They have a wide range of electronics and manufacturing equipment as well as hand tools, design space, and materials on stock. You won’t believe what you can use over there! SO AWESOME! you have:

The laser cutter, the milling machine, the vinyl cutter, the embroidery machine an a 3D printer!

There are a lot of FabLabs all over the world, so go look if there is one close to your home!

So I will update you guys next time, If you have seen a cool designed chair, or found an awesome recycle designer I have to take a look at, PLEASE comment! I really appreciate it!

 

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The chair – part 1

As some of you know, I’m a student at the A. Roland Holst College. You can compare it to high school. Only in Holland, the high school is separated in different  levels. You have MAVO, HAVO, VWO and gymnasium. I’m currently in my last year of the HAVO, which is the average level in Holland. Since its my last year, I have to do a really important school project that takes a lot of time. I was thinking, I could blog about the progress of the whole project, and I could use some help.
So lets begin…
The whole project is about recycling and how to make recycling fun. Recycling has become popular worldwide. Though, I have been asking students at school about recycling, and I was surprised what faces the students gave me when I asked them what they think about recycling. The most of them tell me they know that recycling is good for the earth and all and you should separate your garbage… but they don’t do it because “its stupid and takes to much time”. Then I showed pictures of famous recycled design products, they’d say its awesome. Most of the people didn’t even think about design when they thought about recycling. So it CAN be cool. The problem is, the recycled designer products are really expensive AND don’t encourage you to go recycle YOURSELF. Its only makes you feel good, cause “you bought something recycled” For example, look at the amazing designs from Piet Hein Eek. He makes beautiful furniture made of scrap wood.

I really love this work, and I would love to have furniture like this in my future home. Now lets look at the amount of money you see on this picture. One chair will cost you:

Without lacquer: € 1.917,00

with lacquer: € 2.105,00

That is a freekin’ lot of money for just ONE chair! A normal household is not able to pay that for their furniture!
So that made me think. Is it possible to make something that:

1. Makes you want to recycle yourself (makes it fun).
2. you want to place in your home.
3. Won’t cost you an absurd amount of money.

So that point of view is the base of my school project. I’m going to do a research on recycling. About what recycling is, how to make it popular, for how long have people been recycling and much more! The final product is a great research on recycling AND … I’m actually going to make a chair, which has to measure up to the points above.
And the most awesome thing of all, the chair is going to be exhibited in Hilversum February 8th. After the exhibition, to actually make point three come true …. I’M GOING TO SELL THE CHAIR FOR A GOOD PRICE! So keep following my posts on this and PLEASE GIVE ME FEEDBACK! What so you think of the whole idea? I’d really appreciate feedback, ideas, websites, everything! If you read this and think about an article that you have read about – for example – the history of recycling, PLEASE comment it, or mail it to me! I would love to make a chair together with you guys!
Mail: dutch-story@hotmail.com    Subject: The chair.
Have a nice day and thanks for reading!
Ps.
I’m doing this project together with Josephine, she is amazing with clothing. She makes her own clothes sometimes… WOAH so awesome! I love her winter coat! you should look at it! I’m going to ask her if I can show a few pictures of it on my blog.. so maybe next blog you will see it!

DIY Saturday.

I got this great brainwave a few days ago. I made an awesome lamp which is kinda easy to make yourself.

So I made this lamp out of leftovers wool I had from knitting something. I used gel I normally use for painting and diluted it with water (I think you can use glue too).  And I used a baloon for the shape.

 

<--- gel I used.

 

 

 

so first I put a little gel on the balloon so the wool would stick on it. I wrapped the balloon in with the wool until there is just enough room for light to peek out here and there. Finally I diluted the gel with water and soaked the balloon with the wool on it until the wool had absorbed enough gel.

Then you wait a few days for it to dry.

When it’s all dry, you pop the balloon. Make sure you don’t pull the balloon out to hard, then your lamp won’t be as round as you want it to be…

Then you get an old desk light from a thrift shop (or maybe you have one yourself). What I did was making a frame from iron strings, but maybe your desk lamp already has a good frame and you can use that one to put your own made lampshade.

Hope you liked it!

 

Almost forgot! You have to use a light that doesn’t get hot! you don’t want your amp to catch on fire!

Plastic bottles and apple crumble!

I stayed home from school today. Felt very sick this morning and my back still wont get any better. In the course of the day my back got a little better so I decided to do something.
I have had a bag full of empty plastic bottles in my room for a  long time now. It was finally time to actually use them in stead of just letting them stay there on the ground forever.  So here is what I did!



Its really simple to make, and looks good on my desk.
Oh yeah!
I also made an apple crumble…. HMMM jum!