Furniture from factory waste

Amy sez, "Factory waste was collected in Denmark and then turned into a furniture collection. This was my graduate project at Denmark's School of Design. The pieces are made entirely out of wood and consist of a chair, a book box and 12 lamps which fit inside each other like babooshka dolls." Link (Thanks, Amy!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Good chair for a dainty Dane, but I’d be afraid to sit on it myself.

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Wikipedia calls them both matryoshka doll or Babooshka doll.
kaffee

RE #1, would be curious to see the real differences between the two, as what I often see referred to is often stated as “a.k.a” ( babooshka, also known as matryoshka dools…”, e.g.). Thanks for the comment.

As for the pieces in the picture above: interesting patterns from the different types of wood; interesting concept.
OM

“Wikipedia calls them both matryoshka doll or Babooshka doll.”

…Most Russians born after the end of the Cold War refer to them exclusively these days as “Babooshkas” simply because that’s how they’ve been referred to in all areas outside of the Iron Curtain.

…Referring to the lamp depicted in the photo, tho, usually when you see scrap wood products cobbled together into objects, it’s *very* rare to see them result in anything that has curvature to it. They’re usually angular simply out of convenience. About the only exception I can name off the top of my head was an art exhibit I’d seen about 30-35 years ago, where this local hippie’s specialty was going to home construction sites – especially the really top-dollar “planned communities” out on the outskirts of town – and scavenging up as many different forms of wood, paneling, plastics, tiling (floor and bathroom), countertop formicals, and even bathroom glass, epoxying them together into bricks, and then carving and sanding them into sculptures. The effect was something akin to what you see in the lamp above, with a rather interesting stratification to the finished product.
celse7en

I don’t know how much of a dork I am, but all I am seeing is the furniture from MySims on the Wii (particularly since later in the game, you have to build simple things out of dozens and dozens of parts).

Dork dork dork.
anthony

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babushka
“babooshka” is a Kate Bush thing.
But of course I am just bored, and in no way an expert.
Na zdrowie!
anthony

The stuff is pretty inspiring. It looks like she laminated the bits and pieces and then coaxed them into shape?
Takuan

unless these were cured under microwaves and extreme pressure, I wouldn’t expect them to last long.
AirPillo

#6:
“The stuff is pretty inspiring. It looks like she laminated the bits and pieces and then coaxed them into shape? ”

Looks like it, which means it is by no means a new concept per se, though a cool one nonetheless. It’s pretty common for students in a high school wood shop class to do the same thing in order to make, for example, a checkerboard or a cutting board. One laminates many blocks of what can either be useful stock or discarded scraps, then machine it into a finished, useful surface.

It’s also a technique I’ve seen used to build unique looking kitchen countertops, where a business will take lumber that’s either scrap or ill-suited to construction or traditional woodworking, dice it up, make a laminate mass, and machine it into very nice, smooth, intricately patterned countertops which, sadly, can be very expensive despite their inexpensive materials because they’re very labor-intensive to manufacture.
anthony

What’s long nowadays? Ikea furniture is made from sawdust and gram cracker as far as I can tell.
I admit I don’t know enough about joining unlike species of wood together, but when you glue properly the bond can be stronger than the original solid piece.
anthony

“It’s also a technique I’ve seen used to build unique looking kitchen countertops, where a business will take lumber that’s either scrap or ill-suited to construction or traditional woodworking, dice it up, make a laminate mass, and machine it into very nice, smooth, intricately patterned countertops”

Now you talkin’! I would love to do that. But how does one clamp a mass of wood blocks together? Pressure has to be applied in two directions or you get a permanent hump in the thing.
Mim

@#10 – You can clamp a mass of wood blocks together by framing them with larger pieces of wood that are clamped together. (Did it in grade 8 wood shop.)
anthony

Thanks Mim!
I was thinking this would be hard to do with a countertop shape, but also I should have googled for an answer…
I feel like a 7th grader.
Takuan

how?
http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Walnut_Butcher_Block_Countertops.html
eti

“…which fit inside each other like babooshka dolls.”

Except the dolls are all the same design, just different sizes.
AmyHunting

Hello everyone,

the wood is all untreated, no laminates involved. The small off-cuts were glued and joined with wood dowels and they are surprisingly strong. As far as the pattern on the lamps: they came from sawing a 40 cm x 40 cm x 40 cm of massive block of wood (made of tiny pieces of wood and plywood) on a band saw at a 80 degree angle. If you scroll down here you can see the pattern from the wood closer:

http://www.amyhunting.com/Amy%20Hunting/Babooshka.html

Amy
Takuan

dowelled??? Amy: you are a complete loon: I salute you! (that’s what I call dedication!)
Takuan

100 wonderful points by the way
AmyHunting

My fingers still hurt!
bcsizemo

Personally it that chair doesn’t look strong. There are no stringers or cross braces on the legs. My 200+ lb butt, over my life time, would surely crack those legs.

A cheaper economical greener way to make furniture sure, I’ll give it that. But, less wasteful, I would doubt that. The solid wood mission style chairs in my living room are going to out live me. Sure they were expensive, but that’s also a one time investment. Not popping down to Rooms to Go every 5 years or so to pickup a new chair because this one is falling apart.

I guess it’s just how you look at things.

Like my friend said, we need some of that nanite technology in a glue like fashion. Squeeze a little on some scrap wood, and the nanites (sp?) would bond the wood fiber back together. Of course by that time in history we will have self healing houses and cured cancer.
Marcus Hyatt

The idea of randomness is in itself portentous in good hands.
re-imagining waste has it’s own glory for a variety of reasons.

I applaud how the pastiche of materials enlivens the form of these objects. The evolution of ideas still enthralls. Keep on.

These pieces parallel the work of Piet Hein Eek, to me, in that spirit.

Our era, our design DNA matrix refined; a pleasure to watch unfold.
DeuceMojo

My 1-year-old son eats White Castle and why not, I say, the stuff is absolutely delicious.
wil9000

I assume you mean matryoshka dolls. Easy mistake to make.
xxoo,
Wil