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 4–The making of…

I haven’t been writing about my chair progress a lot. I have been reading your ideas and comments though! I have been designing, calculating, brainstorming, researching, diving in art design books and more.

I’ve got 400 empty cans, what to do to make a chair with it? hmmm…I came to the conclusion that I need to make a frame. The consumer can buy this frame, and put in its own cans. So the frame has to be designed so, that you only need about 30 cans to sit on it. Since you’re probably not able to recycle hundreds of cans in just a few weeks. And you don’t want to be recycling for years and years before you can actually use your chair.

I was designing a few chairs when I got to the perfect idea! I’m going to use planks. In between those planks you can put your cans. Its hard to explain. Let me show you what I mean.

That is what happens when I write down what is in my head. I know, it looks like a total chaos. But if you look good you’ll understand it. Even if you don’t read Dutch.

With the design all worked out. I was ready to get some wood and get started. In one of my previous chair post you can see the research on what wood I wanted. I had chosen softwood. which is the most beautiful. I drew the shape on the wood first, then I sawn it.

It was time too drill in the curves so the cans cant move. I first put all the cans on the chair to check how I wanted to place them. Then I calculated where the circles needed to be and I drilled them out.

Then I fitted the cans in again. There wasn’t enough time to drill the whole plank. But I got this far:

I’m sorry this post is more a photo album than an actual post, but its easier to just show you guys then to write it all down. Let me know what you think of it. Or if you have any ideas, let me know! Just comment on this post. If you have any questions or really great idea that you want to ask or tell me directly, you can mail me on:

dutch-story@hotmail.nl

I really appreciate every idea and comment!!

THANKS :)

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!

Thinking big.

Holy Moly, I just finished a drawing that I’ve been working on for 8 hours(!!!???) It looks quite simple and if you don’t know what I know you’d probably think I draw very slowly… But what you didn’t know (but now you do) Is that this portrait is One by One and a half METERS. So I started drawing on Tuesday, stopped for two days, and finished it today. I hope you guys like it!

 

 

I used: A pencil, my fine liners, and a big black marker.

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!

I'm doing that drawing thing again!

I haven’t been writing anything for a couple of days. Although I’m quite new to blogging, it really gets a bit addictive.  I’m constantly thinking about what to blog next.

I’ve been drawing today. I was finally capable of doing my “super-drawing-focus” thing again! Which means I made the whole drawing at once. I'm training myself to do that again. I’ve been having problems concentrating on drawing for more that half an hour or so. And this time I completed the whole drawing at once in 1 hour! YAY! 

I'm sorry for the quality of the picture. I took it with the ipad... So I drew with my fine liners and markers. This time I used my red marker for the lips. 

Another thing, I’m turning 18 Friday! Which means I can drive legally in Holland! So there is definitely going to be a “ OHMYGOSH I SHIT MY PANTS WHEN I’M HAVING DRIVING LESSONS!” blog post… :)

I’m going to celebrate it with friends one week later, and the next day I will celebrate it with family. Maybe I’ll post some pictures of my birthday if its possible. Maybe I won’t be able to do so.  I’ve got a big family coming. So maybe there won’t be time to make some cool pics. :(