Royal College of Art graduate David Steiner has turned his house into a factory by adapting household appliances to create a range of tableware and lighting (+ slideshow).
“The project began as an experiment in self-sufficiency, to some extent a reaction against the growing prevalence of desktop digital manufacture,” said David Steiner, adding that he wanted to show what can be achieved using his existing possessions.
Simple interventions transformed everyday objects that can be found in most homes into tools that replicate industrial manufacturing processes, such as rotational moulding and steam bending.
A lampshade made from a baking tray was cut with scissors before being pressed into shape in the edge of a door frame.
An embroidery hoop and sections of a notice board frame were used to make a framework for a polypropylene mould that was put in a washing machine to create a device for rotation casting tableware.
Cutlery was cast from pewter in a mould made from a cereal box cut into shape and fixed to a chopping board.
Cork from notice boards was layered and turned on a lathe surface attached to the top of a blender.
A mixer was transformed into a pottery wheel used to throw a cup made from sugar paste.
Wooden rulers dunked in water were heated in a microwave and bent to form a tray in a process replicating steam bending.
Royal College of Art graduate Lauren Davies has designed a range of copper, maple and glass tools to make scented oils, creams and cosmetics at home (+ slideshow).
The Alchemist’s Dressing Table project by Lauren Davies features a three-tier distiller for making scented oils, a scent infuser for creating creams and balms, and a double-sided copper bat for mixing eyeliner.
“The tools I’ve designed will enable women to forge a stronger connection to their personal beauty rituals and a more magical relationship with nature’s intricate mysteries,” said Davies.
Distiller
The three-tier distiller features a glass globe and a stainless steel stand with a cork rim. Water can be boiled in the spun-copper bowl on the base, which is heated by an oil burner positioned underneath.
Steam passes up through scented plants that are placed on the first copper sieve and again through a second sieve. The top compartment is filled with ice and the spun copper funnel acts as a condenser, turning the rising steam underneath into a scented liquid that trickles into a glass, positioned in the centre.
Glass pan and copper hot plate, scent infuser and copper kohl plate
Davies has also created a pan for melting oils and waxes, and for mixing scents and pigments. The pan is made from borosilicate glass and has a maple wood handle. It sits on copper hot plate that is positioned on a stainless steel stand.
Glass pan with maple wood handle
For creating creams and balms from scented plants, Davies has designed a scent infuser. “The scent is built up over time as unscented fat traps the airborne scent molecules from the plant material above,” she explained.
Scent infuser
The final tool is a copper plate with a wooden handle for making kohl eyeliner. A single disc of copper is place over an oil burner. Carbon collects on the underside and then the disk is flipped over for making the eye makeup.
Copper plate with maple wood handle
“The black carbon deposit can then be mixed with almond oil for a smudged finish or aloe vera and witch hazel to allow a brush drawn line and used as eyeliner,” Davies explained.
Davies’ collection also includes a pair of copper tongs for picking up plant material, a maple wood stirrer, a mixing tool and four copper measuring spoons.
Hand tools include copper tongs, four measuring spoons and a mirror
All the products are made from five materials. “The palette of copper and maple wood are chosen for their traditional and folkloric symbolism respectively,” said Davies. “Cork is used for its insulating properties, borosilicate glass for its heat resistance and stainless steel for strength,” she added.
Here’s a short movie featuring the alchemist’s table:
The Alchemist’s Dressing Table is a collection of analog tools for the production of natural cosmetics at home, inspired by beautiful ancient rituals and the transformative powers of alchemy.
The palette of copper and maple wood are chosen for their traditional and folkloric symbolism respectively. Cork is used for its insulating properties, borosilicate glass for its heat resistance and stainless steel for strength. All components are fabricated in collaboration with London-based craftsmen.
Together, the tools form a statement piece; reigniting a dialogue about our relationship with nature and the materials we use. I believe this could be the future of cosmetics for the modern woman who has a desire to be more in control of what she uses on her skin and the impact they have on the environment.
The tools I’ve designed will enable women to forge a stronger connection to their personal beauty rituals and a more magical relationship with nature’s intricate mysteries.
The distiller can be used to make hydrosols and essential oils. Water is boiled in the spun copper bowl using an oil burner. Steam then passes up through the scented plant material sitting on the handcrafted sieve above. The top compartment is filled with ice allowing its spun copper base to act as a condenser. The steam carries the scent particles up through the second sieve and hits the condenser where it cools, turns into liquid and drips down into the collection glass below.
Oils and waxes can be melted in the pan over the hot plate and mixed with scents and pigments. The scent infuser is for the cold maceration of volatile scented plants to make creams and balms. The scent is built us over time as unscented fat traps the airborne scent molecules from the plant material above.
The kohl plate is for the preparation of black kohl eyeliner. Carbon collects on the underside of the copper plate from the almond oil burning in the oil burner below for a period of time. This black carbon deposit can then be mixed with almond oil for a smudged finish or aloe vera and witch hazel to allow a brush drawn line and used as eyeliner.
The hand held tools comprise of a pair of copper tongs to be used with plant material in the distiller or scent infuser, a stirrer for the pan, a mixing tool for use with the kohl plate and a set of measuring spoons (TBSP, TSP, 1⁄2 TSP, 1⁄4 TSP) to be used where accuracy is needed.
Royal College of Art graduate Benedikt Groß has digitally “printed” a field with a pattern of oats and wild flowers (+ movie).
He began by investigating how digital technology is transforming farming. “You could say in the last 50 years everything was about mechanisation to increase scale and efficiency, but the next thing in farming is digitalisation and precision farming, where everything is going to be mapped right down to the single plant,” Benedikt Groß told Dezeen.
He explained that precision farming is already being used to apply exactly the right amounts of fertiliser or pesticides to specific parts of a field rather than simply coating large areas.
“Farming becomes more like a digital process or a printing process with these kinds of technologies on board,” he added. “Maybe a farmer in a few years is a person in front of a dashboard and is literally programming the landscape.”
To investigate how precision farming technologies might affect the look of that landscape, the designer decided to tackle problems associated with modern monoculture farming by controlling the mix of plants in a field and sowing them in the most efficient pattern. “If you have more diversity then you have to use less pesticides and have less problems with vermin,” he explained.
To test the process on a field in Germany, the outline of the area was first mapped using a tractor and GPS tracking. Groß then used custom software to determine the most effective layout, dividing the field into patches so 85% of the area would be covered by crops for biomass and 15% of the field would be reserved for a mix of five different flowers.
“The algorithm divides the field into the right ratio of plants and then tries to create small partitions,” he said. “The size and shape of that smaller partition tries to mimic traditional fields, when you had less of the problems associated with monoculture.”
The seeds were then sown according to this pattern using specially-adapted farming equipment, mounted to a tractor and pulled back and forth across the field like the head of a printer. Groß assembled the machinery by repurposing equipment from farming research and development companies, adding his own software to control where the seed was dropped.
“About 95 per cent of the equipment is R&D or right from the shelf of two agricultural companies, so the equipment is not that far in the future,” the designer said. “More or less everything was there and I just had to experiment in terms of joining the technologies together by writing some software.”
For the test run shown in the movie, the tractor had to pass over the field twice – once for the oats and once for the flowers – but Groß says the process could easily be completed with one pass if a hopper were mounted at either end of the tractor.
“It’s definitely possible [to do it in one pass] because with modern tractors, normally you have one machine in front and one at the rear so you are able to do two things in one step,” he said. “But the machine was 50,000 euros so it was not too easy to persuade them to get a second one for the trial.”
Although the technology is expensive at present – meaning only farmers with a lot of land can implement it – Groß is confident that the cost of equipment will come down as precision farming become more widespread. “In five or ten years the equipment I was adapting will be used every day.”
His system also ties into a shift in arable farming from food production to energy production. “With plants grown for biomass you can have more diversity more easily,” he said. “If you have a field for wheat it’s really important that the wheat is really pure because in the end it’s going to be bread, but with energy production it doesn’t matter because everything goes in the same bin in a biomass factory.”
In addition, European Union subsidies promoting diversity in planting to combat monoculture issues could enable farmers to earn extra money by implementing his design. “With the flower mix I’m using, you can get subsidies – a few hundred euros per hectare I think,” he said. “It’s really plausible that a farmer could get subsidies on top of an energy production deal.”
The first crop was made into biomass last month, and he’s now looking to work with scientists to quantify the impact that his planting system has on the environment and farming practice.
Royal College of Art graduate Jule Waibel has designed a series of folded paper clothes and accessories including a dress that adjusts and expands as you move and a concertinaed handbag (+ movie).
Transforming simple sheet materials into three-dimensional objects, Waibel’s project, called Entfaltung (unfold/expand/develop), features a yellow dress that changes its shape according to the movement of the body, a green expandable bag and an orange-coloured umbrella.
“Collapsible structures reflect how our world is constantly changing,” says designer Julie Waibel. “This project celebrates the beauty found between geometry, transformation and play.”
Waibel told Dezeen how she spent months folding and pleating different materials, such as shower curtains, leather and polymers.
The final structures are made from Tyvek, a lightweight, waterproof and tear-proof synthetic paper. The coloured gradient is printed on to the paper before it is folded.
“I got inspired by Mary Poppins and her magical handbag,” Waibel told Dezeen. “Everything seems to fit inside: a mirror, a hatstand, a plant and more.”
Royal College of Art graduate Jeongwon Ji has made her own bioplastic from crab shells.
Material samples and crab shell pieces
Aiming to make a more tactile casing for electronic products, Jeongwon Ji extracted a derivatine of glucose called chitin from crustaceans and developed her own plastic from it by trial and error in the workshop.
Chinese mitten crab shells, from which the chitin polymer can be extracted
The resulting material, which she calls Crustic, combines the chitin with water and small amount of glycerin.
Experiment samples
“The Chinese mitten crab from Asia is one of the most invasive species and they are taking over the rivers in the UK,” Jeongwon Ji told Dezeen. “The crabs are unwanted here so I wanted to work out what we can do with them as a resource instead.”
Experiment samples
The water-based mixture takes much longer to cure than conventional plastics but the ingredients are completely non-toxic, she explained. “Although production time is longer, this nontoxic process can improve the work life of those who manufacture our electronics.”
Alarm clock with Crustic casing
In the Design Products department of the Royal College of Art graduate show last week, the designer presented her material samples and experiments alongside conceptual electronic projects with casings made of Crustic, including an alarm clock, humidifier, computer trackpad, torch and WiFi router.
WiFi router with Crustic casing
Although they were all made in accurate geometric wooden moulds, the material becomes rough and distorts as it cures, resulting in tactile and organic forms.
Torch with Crustic casing
“I wanted to challenge the archetypes of electronic products by using tactile surfaces and making forms that look like they are made of something different, something natural,” she said.
BioElectric challenges the archetypes of electronics through material exploration. Industrial processes have streamlined manufactured products, but what if we allow new materials to be expressive and tactile? Like many of today’s electronic components, the Chinese Mitten Crab comes from Asia. This species invades our rivers, and is an unwanted, local resource.
Moulds used to make casings for the electronic products
I extracted Chitin polymers from crushed crab shells, and perfecting chemical-free “slow production” methods to make bio-plastics for the casings of electronic products. Although production time is longer, this nontoxic process can improve the work life of those who manufacture our electronics.
The bioplastic distorts into organic tactile shapes despite the geometric moulds
Crustic
Crustic is a crustacean-based biocompatible plastic that Jeongwon Ji developed for her BioElectric project to enhance tactile pleasure.
The production time of Crustic is longer because the use of water instead of artificial chemicals. Crustic is made out of chitin derived from crab shells and water, combining with a small amount of red agile and glycerin.
In the Design Interactions department of the Royal College of Art‘s graduate exhibition this week Minsu Kim presents three dishes, each exhibiting a different behaviour: wriggling around, waving tentacles or puffing up as though breathing.
“This project explores new culinary experiences through developments in synthetic biology, and finds its lineage in haute cuisine and molecular gastronomy,” the designer adds. “What if food was able to play with our cutlery and create hyper-sensations in our mouth?”
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