Yu Jordy Fu

Recycled paper lasercut lampshades. Sort of like something I might have done which makes me feel a little unoriginal! :) my stuff is more surreal and illustrative and less 3 dimensional but really similar...lets hope this inspires me to innovate :)

http://www.jordyfu.com/

Out There - Aether Architecture

Wall of wing mirrors all tilting different directions to show a slightly different view! Is fascinating...excerpt from website below...

http://www.aether.hu/

"The exhibition called “Sorry for Taking Your Mirrors” talks about new ways of creating spaces which are ‘high-tech’ and ‘low-tech’ at the same time: they are interactive, responsive, can physically change to accommodate various functions over time, but are built form reused everyday objects, which are readily available around the world. We are interested in architectural research into technological spaces that are low cost, enabling and welcoming."

From Now to Eternity

Plastic Nostalgia by Raw Edges

Plastic Fandangoes by Committee

Exhibition about plastic - pros and cons. Some designers celebrating plastics versatility and others highlighting it's drawbacks. It was interesting. For some stuff we really need plastic. But it is misused alot too. And it is hard to recycle. I've been talking to a guy at an acrylic company and while they recycle everything internally, there is no system to collect acrylic from outside because if it contaminated with other plastics it will degrade the recycled product. I'm really mixed up over whether I should use acrylic or not...

Central Saint Martins Degree Show

First some Textile Futures.....

Jo Angell's Solar Sanctuary. Shades to encourage people out of the sun with layers that shine through in the light.

Amelie Labarthe's Home Creature Comfort, interior pieces that encourage warmth and affection. Very cute :)

And then others...

Christina Chong's lamps made from shredded paper...recycling and a textured shadow. I really want to play with paper now!

Yunju Lee's fun jewellery of ink spots, ketchup stains and iron burns. Her website doesn't do her work justice but I guess it isn't finished yet.

Hiroka Nakano's Personal Landmark project...cutting sections out of photos and looking through the space. I believe it is to do with how we see landmarks and what they mean to different people. There's a proper explanation on the website though.

Esther Coombs

Just discovered Esther Coombs via Print&Pattern and she has also made cake stands with old crockery :) only hers are actually stuck together and printed :) Her drawing is loveliness. I really want to do more drawing.

Epigenetics

A couple weeks ago we did a week group project combining science and design following an intense day of talks about epigenetics and model organisms - Fabrics of life, marrying design to discovery. It was so interesting! My group were focusing on my favourite talk as well which was by Jim Smith ( Molecular basis of mesoderm formation, Gurdon Institute, Cambridge) about frogs and how cells cleave and organise themselves into what they need to be. We made a concept animation thing about self repairing plates much like how newts can regrow lost limbs :)

My favourite part was thinking about mutations and playing with all the crockery. I made a cake stand out of plates and a wineglass. And of course I needed to bake cupcakes to go on it...any excuse to bake cake :D I've always wanted a cake stand and now I can create a makeshift one whenever I may need then take it apart again for easy storage. Eggggs.

You can see our work here and what all the other groups did over here.

Giles Miller

Previously I posted about Greypants cardboard lampshades...then Stephanie showed me Giles Miller's cardboard work which takes it alittle furthur - working in floral designs. It's lovely but so expensive! I guess it must be alot of work. I'd like to have a go though :) Work in some sillhouettes! Giles Miller is part of Farm...so that's where you can see all his stuff and other lovely stuff.

Grand Designs/Icon Experiment - Stuff I liked

http://www.silkwoodtraders.com/ Beautiful hand crafted fair trade lacquerwood products. I heart this bowl. It's beautifulness. I've bought it for my mum's birthday.

These guys are by http://www.reestore.com/ Very fun recycled furniture!

And this is http://www.anorakonline.co.uk/ Sillhouttes :) Animals :) Of course I like. So clean and simple and pretty. Nice colours too. I want deer bedsheets.

Greypants - Beautiful Cardboard

Look! A video of cardboard furniture making! By Greypants. Bit more sophisticated than mine though :) And these beautiful cardboard lamp shades that cast textured shadows. I still have alot of card...I wonder if I could something like this and incorporate imagery...

Recycle Chair :D

A while ago my housemate brought these massive rolls of corrugated cardboard home that they were chucking out where she worked. They sat quietly and uselessly here for months. The card is weak and there was so much and no one wanted it. It was decided they should go to the dump. This made me sad...so much cardboard wasted :(

My friend Stephanie at Garbage! might want them for her recycling project I cried!

Are you going to roll them to her flat? Everyone else asked me.

The answer was no, and Stephanie most likely has plenty of rubbish to be recycling and making into exciting new things. But I thought maybe I could do something with it, even though my housemates hated the cardboard and wanted to get it out of the house and didn't want me being silly....so I accidentally enslaved a friend who was staying with me into helping me make a rocking chair. By cutting out layer by layer with scalpels. It only took an hour! :)

The result was good. My housemates actually like it! A roll of card has been saved. And it's quite comfy. Yay.

Ever and Again - Experimental recycled Textiles

I just caught this exhibition before it finished yesterday at Chelsea College of Art and Design and I'm glad I did! It is the work of TED designers and some guest designers creating new textile products from old ones, giving things new and increased value.

I particularly like:

Rebecca Earley's heat printed shirts, old shirts freshly printed with gardening inspired prints. floral but modern, intended for wearing in the garden, growing your own food.

Emma Neubergs plastic bag/packaging laminated skirts. They are bright, fun, and make a statement by twisting the slogans. It is almost storytelling.

Kathryn Round and Charlotte Mann's work, printing photographs of old clothes on organic fabric, to keep the memory of well loved clothes. I hate getting rid of things so I have piles of useless things. Clothes that don't fit or that have no armpits or something. So I love this idea that I could still wear something that is really too old or doesn't fit. I don't know that this is recyling so much though. Is printing on organic fabric, a photograph of something old not a bit of a tenuous link? I guess it means the actual item can then go to someone who it does fit. Or also, it means the item has served another purpose even though it's part is soon over.

Gary Page's dress that goes through 3 redesigns to freshen it up and lengthen its life. It starts as a plain organic cotton dress. Then it is indigo dyed and ruffled. Then it is printed by Rob Ryan (Yay!) and finally its restyled and sparkled. The owner sends the dress to get redesigned when ever they feel it is time. This is a lovely way to lengthen the life of a product. In a way interactive. After being with a dress through 4 incarnations I can see a person being emotionally attached to the dress and less likely to throw it away.

http://www.everandagain.info/