Hasta La Ideas

UK designer Michael Antrobus has created a corkscrew and bottle opener by making just a few twists in flat stainless steel bars.

On sale at the MAK Design Shop in Vienna, each product is held in place with just a single weld.

Ground Barware is an extension of the stationery set he created while studying at Kingston University in 2009 (see our earlier story) which aimed to find domestic applications for products of the British steel industry.

Photographs are by Verena Melgarejo.

Here are some more details from Antrobus:

Ground objects are the outcome of a hands on material lead design process, characterised by experimentation and reduction. The result of working exclusively with flat steel using simple jigs and press tools. The bottle opener and corkscrew are the first objects from a wider continuation of the Ground series which began with a collection of stationery.

Each object is formed from a single length of 4000 Series Stainless Steel. First, a common tool is used to twist sections of each rectangular blank 180 degrees. A single twist forms a handle for the corkscrew and two opposing twists at the apex of the handle add the functional characteristic of the bottle opener. After twisting the blanks are taken to a fly press where radial bends are added. Once compete and correctly aligned the form of each object is secured with the application of a single precise weld, the weld is ground flush, before the objects are brushed to a matt finish.

Corkscrew: 110mm x 110mm
Bottle opener:195mm x 50mm

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