Driftwood Delirium

There is something truly magical about driftwood as a material, totally unique and crafted by nature, the action of time, tide, sun and wind doing the work equivalent to many man hours of labour with sandpaper and tools which mother nature considerately delivers to your local beach as an art form in itself.

What happens now to this amazing material leaves many a coastal artist imbued in a fresh deluge of creative juices upon each new find.

Boys Day Out

The life sized Horses from sculptor Heather Jansch.

Interesting sculpture at Saint-Anne-des Monts Driftwood Festival Quebec

There is so much driftwood at Saint-Anne-des Monts that they have a driftwood festival every year where many carved pieces can be found around the town.

Three Men

Piano 2

Rikki Carette is a sculptor who gathers his materials from the Devon & Cornwall coast England. This Eco minded fellow cleverly combines two businesses, operating as Cleancoast Services keeping our shore lines tidy and using much of the collected wood for his quirky and comical sculptures available at Cleancoast Sculptures.

Surfer

Lobster

Also in England is Julia Horberry from Cornwall operating as Julia's Driftwood Furniture, her style of art being functional, she works from her workshop perched at the top of her garden and describes herself as 'one very happy girl'   :)

Driftwood Candle Holder

Driftwood Chair

Driftwood Mirror

Paul A. Baliker from Palm Coast Florida is a very talented sculptor sometimes working on a huge scale who endeavours to capture a moment in wood that expresses potential for a symbiotic relationship with nature.

A Matter of Time

Oceans 11th Hour

Just a tiny selection of the amazing art out there using driftwood, so next time you are walking along the beach and spot some driftwood let your imagination run wild and think of the potential in this 'junk of the ocean'   :)

Large Knobbly Display Bowl

This large display bowl has been created by laminating together four identical plywoods, a fifth blond plywood to add contrast was laminated to the inside of the base then carved around by hand in a random design to add a quirky and unique eye catching pattern. 


This is probably the most difficult piece I have had to sand so far with most of the detail being sanded by hand.
The finished result was well worth the effort though, an incredibly tactile bowl that makes you want to roll a marble around the inside like one of those children's toys !

Item No. 3121     19" diameter x 3" deep     12.5" diameter base     1.8 kg 

The base design as you will see from the pictures is not only carved into the darker timber by approximately 6mm but also raised above the base in a contrasting blond timber by approximately 6mm giving a pattern relief of 12mm between peaks and valley's. 

There is also a slight recess running around the exterior of the bowl to create a shallow carrying lip.

At over 1.5ft diameter this would make an unmissable centre piece for a larger dining table or as a display bowl in a hotel / catering environment. 

Finished with four coats of Linseed / Tung oil mix giving a subtle satin effect. This fruit bowl is food safe and extremely heat resistant.

As with all WeirdWood art pieces each item is absolutely unique with its own identifying number stamped on the reverse.

Handmade at the WeirdWood workshop in Staffordshire using only renewable energy produced 'on site'.  

This item and many other original pieces can be viewed and purchased from:   http://weirdwood.mysupadupa.com/  

Flower patterned Fruit Bowl

A good example here of how the symmetrical lines of plywood can be distorted by carving into the flat surface, this just finished fruit bowl turned out with a flower pattern by happy accident.


15" x 2.25"     1.6 kg

The eight deep lines of fluting running from the rim to the centre of the bowl has the effect of distorting the otherwise perfectly circular lines of the plywood into a flower effect. 

The exterior sides of the bowl are gently convexed down to a substantial base of 7" in diameter giving this piece great stability. 

This item and many other original pieces can be viewed and purchased from:   http://weirdwood.mysupadupa.com/ 

Square Fluted Fruit Bowl

This square bowl really catches the eye due to the subtle fluting travelling down from each corner which gets deeper as it reaches the centre of the bowl, this has the effect of distorting the otherwise symmetrical lines of the plywood as though the bowl is being 'pinched' from underneath.


Square Fluted Fruit Bowl.
Item No. 1123.    13" x 13" x 2" (330mm x 330mm)    Base: 5.5" x 5.5" (140mm x 140mm)    1.3kg

Hand Crafted by laminating together three layers of plywood, with the top layer a subtly lighter wood to form the rim.

Finished with four coats of Linseed / Tung oil mix giving a subtle satin effect. This fruit bowl is food safe and extremely heat resistant.

As with all WeirdWood art pieces each item is absolutely unique with its own identifying number stamped on the reverse.
Handmade at the WeirdWood workshop in Staffordshire using only renewable energy produced 'on site'. 

This item and many other original pieces can be viewed and purchased from:   http://weirdwood.mysupadupa.com/

WeirdWood gone squiggly

I'm really pleased with the effect achieved with this large square fruit / display bowl, with a random pattern carved into the base and gentle fluting into the corners accentuated by the shine of the deep satin lustre.


Square Squiggly Fruit Bowl 

18" x 18" x 3" (457mm x 457mm) 

Base:   8.5" x 8.5" (215mm x 215mm) 

A large display bowl with a random squiggle design carved into the bottom. 
This bowl is hand crafted using four pieces of quality plywood laminated together with layers one and four being a subtly lighter shade of timber to highlight the rim and base design. A graduated fluting effect runs from each corner down into the base where it turns into a random pattern 8mm deep. 

At 1.5ft square this would make an unmissable centre piece for a larger dining table or as a display bowl in a hotel / catering environment. 

Finished with four coats of Linseed / Tung oil mix giving a subtle satin effect. This fruit bowl is food safe and extremely heat resistant. 

As with all WeirdWood art pieces each item is absolutely unique with its own identifying number stamped on the reverse. 

Handmade at the WeirdWood workshop in Staffordshire using only renewable energy produced 'on site'. 

This item plus many more functional art inspired pieces can be viewed and purchased at:  http://weirdwood.mysupadupa.com/    :)

The Bowl of Confusion

I had real fun making this one, although it was a bit time consuming. Using two types of plywood, one a blond soft wood the other dark hard woods, this bowl has been constructed with each of the four layers alternating in style and orientation.

Layer One has been left in it's normal flat alignment as an impressive blond rim to the bowl.

Layer Two, a darker wood has been cut into strips, turned 90 degrees then re-laminated to create an 'edge on' effect.

Layer Three was achieved by cutting the ply into short blocks and re-laminating them back into a 'herring bone' pattern.

Layer Four had the plywood cut into strips then laminated back together with every other strip set on edge.

The picture below depicts well the overall effect with layer three being my personal favourite as the herring bone construction gives the illusion of the timber bending as it turns the corner of the bowl.

13" x 9" x 3.25"


Finished with four coats of linseed / tung oil mix this fruit / salad bowl is food safe and extremely heat resistant.


This item is for sale along with many other WeirdWood creations and can be found at:  http://weirdwood.mysupadupa.com/   

Stuff I Like ~~~ Chairs

Time for another post in the 'Stuff I Like' series, this one dedicated to chairs which I find Weird enough and wonderful enough to pique my interest and hopefully yours. :)

I just have to start with these amazing storytelling chairs from Free Range Designs. I have admired this company for a long time for their sustainable approach to woodworking, like myself, working 'off grid' and using reclaimed materials.

freerangedesigns.co.uk

This eco-friendly yet modern lounger from Istanbul based Gursan Ergil Design Studio I love for the ergonomic design I would love to try it out for comfort. I'm not so sure about the contemporary looking legs though !

http://www.gursanergil.com/

Here's a good use of recycled cardboard, would work with plywood as well of course and very novel, I'm just wondering how many other letters of the alphabet this would work with !

The a-chair was realised at the Royal College of Art. Inspired by a Alvar Aalto’s ply-wood furniture experiments, Frank Gehry’s cardboard furniture, typographic forms and sustainable materials. The a-chair was hand crafted from over 250 sheets of recycled cardboard and a lot of love.

I couldn't finish this post without including a plywood chair, a material I am particularly fond of working with. The chunkiness and curving lines of this stack laminated chair makes it look as though it has been carved from one solid block. Created by Brazil based designer Julia Krantz.

http://www.juliakrantz.com.br

Just a small selection of the many wacky bottom holders out there, I would have loved to list them all  :)