Tree Sculptures by artist Philippe Handford

These visually stunning sculptures by artist Philippe Handford turn illegally cut down trees into impressive artworks.

Philippe has essentially reconnected these cut up trees in an interesting way. These incredible forest sculptures can be found in Northwest England. 

Philippe started doing this in 2012 but has recently created more chopped down tree sculptures. The newest ones are done in arches that intersect with one another, as where Handford's first fallen tree sculpture looked more like a crawling inchworm.

These shots show off Philippe's beautiful works both in summer and winter. These sculptures some how look even more stunning when they are lightly covered in snow. 

Wooden sculptures are pretty common, but the idea of putting cut down trees back together in the woods is an extremely creative approach to wooden art.

Check out Philippe Handford's work on his web site below  :-)

http://www.handforddesign.co.uk

Steam Bent Wooden Bicycle Based on the Thonet Chair

London designer Andy Martin has designed a wooden road bicycle for Thonet using the

steam-bending processes the German furniture company first employed in 1859 for its 

classic cafe chair.

The classic Thonet chair (pictured below) was first produced in the 19th century by German

furniture maker Michael Thonet and can still be seen in cafes more than 150 years later.

Most of the beech frame of the Thonet Concept Bike is bent by hand. A series of connectors and sprung rods have been designed to reinforce joints and stress areas in the frame.

At the end of 2010, London-based designer Andy Martin was asked by Thonet to design and develop a concept road bicycle using their steam bending process developed in the 1930s. Andy Martin Studio developed three designs, the last of which was selected because of its beauty and modest connection with the heritage of the company.

"The challenge was to take on fairly low-tech process of steam bending and then apply it to a 21st century bicycle with highly complex engineering," says Martin. With the many restrictions of hand bending the beech frame, the final jointing and contours would be cut and adjusted on a CNC machine.

Andy Martin has also developed a series of connectors and sprung rods to reinforce joints and the major stress areas in the frame.

The bike itself is a fixed wheel with no brakes and has several interchangeable gear ratios. The seat is solid beech wood supported on a sprung rod supports. The wheels, not designed by Martin, are carbon fibre.

The bike will be available in limited edition and cost £43,000.

Carved Alien Guitar by Gig Goldstein

I keep coming across some amazing carved guitars and this one is a beauty, I like the control knobs representing the Alien eggs ready to hatch. Here is what the artist Gig Goldstein has to say about his work.

 “I started carving 12 years ago, it started out as chainsaw carvings and progressed in to detailed wildlife carvings and my main subjects at that time were fresh water fish. A guitar player friend of mine asked me if I’d be able to carve a solid body guitar and that’s how I got in to working on guitars. I have a small business carving for art galleries and clients that collect my carvings, the guitar thing is really just a sideline hobby I pursue but its starting to become a larger part of what I do.”

“A detailed carving job can take between 40 to 50 hours to complete, the most difficult stage is in the design of the subject. I try to strive for a flow to the overall carving, I also try to tell a story of some type. The alien guitar is roughly based on the art work of the artist H.R. Giger, the idea I had was to interpret an alien life cycle. My biggest joy from completing a guitar is knowing the person receiving it appreciates it as a one of a kind piece of art that you can play.” – Gig Goldstein

Check out some more of Gig's fantastic carved guitars on his YouTube channel:

 http://www.youtube.com/user/GigsCarvedGuitars

Bloomin' Clever Boxes

Most wood workers reading this will be familiar with the good old bandsaw box, the designs of which are many and varied and limited only by the imagination, but when I stumbled upon these gems from Ray & Kathy Sylvester I was absolutely gobsmacked, to call them puzzle boxes is in fact a bit of a misnomer as Ray & Kathy say on their website "these boxes are designed to put things in, not keep people out"

These beautiful boxes are fascinating with many interlocking pieces and secret compartments. although from Derbyshire UK. Ray will travel as far as Edinburgh to select the appropriate hardwoods for his art.

A personal favourite of mine from his collection is his 'Natural Top' boxes. Take a look at this video example:

Now watch the man himself in action, it's not hard to get your head around the principle but the precision is amazing, and how the hell does he remember how each piece goes back together ?!

The perfect gift for any gender and any age so head along to Ray & Kathy's web site  Temima Crafts  for more information   :-)

http://www.temima.co.uk

Wooden Safe / Bandsaw Box

 This wonderful and weird wooden safe created by designer Alex Schlegel is an interesting, albeit unusual way to secure your valuables. The band-saw box features thirteen drawers, which rotate with the movement of the arrows that are stuck to their openings. The objects for safekeeping are placed into the large, central drawer through a hole in the bottom of the box. The cool thing about this design is that the objects in the safe can be moved from one drawer to another by clever maneuvering of the arrows and rotation of the whole box. This makes stealing or even recovering objects from the safe a very tedious task.

Wooden Lathed Lamp Shade

I Stumbled Upon this great little film showing a lampshade being made on a lathe, Initially I thought 'what a waste of wood' but it is fast growing pine which was going to be firewood and the waste is the centre poor quality sap wood.

I would love to tell you more info, thickness of the shade, how many different timbers has he tried etc etc so if anybody knows please leave a comment   :-)

Alexander Grabovetskiy Master Wood Carver

Alexander Grabovetskiy Master Wood Carver /Aalmark LLC asked me to share this video of his work. Take a looky at his Facebook page and prepare to be amazed :-)

https://www.facebook.com/agrabovetskiy