Hasta La Ideas

French designer Elise Gabriel’s series of furniture made by wrapping cellulose fibres round the joints is on show at Galerie Gosserez in Paris.

Called L’Etreinte, the collection uses Zelfo, a material that’s 95% water when applied then shrinks as it dries to tightly embrace the joints.

Zelfo can be made from recycled paper and textiles, or renewable sources of cellulose like hemp and bamboo.

It can also be used to create a fine translucent surface, in this case forming shades for Gabriel’s lamps.

The exhibition continues until 2 April 2011.

The information below is from Galerie Gosserez:

“L’étreinte” (The Embrace) by Elise Gabriel at Galerie Gosserez

From 3rd March to 2nd April 2011, Galerie Gosserez is presenting “l’Etreinte” by Elise Gabriel, a series of furniture (table, chair and lights) whose main theme is researching Zelfo, a new material composed of cellulose* whose great propensity to reduce, to model itself on curvilinear shapes and to embrace the material, allows it to fit tightly round and to assemble together the elements on which it dries. The extremely radical formatting therefore brings to the forefront all of the material’s mechanical, plastic and symbolic power.

‘Zelfo is a resistant material. 100% cellulose fibres when solid and 95% water when liquid. Great tautness is achieved during drying with a 70% reduction rate. This extraction process was devised ten years ago, but there has been no industrial exploitation until now. After this observation, I got fully immersed in it: handling; formalities; observations; confrontations; experimentation. An incessant coming and going between my intuition and the reality of the material, between my wishes and its demands. Zelfo is living matter. Of course I can guide, squeeze and trap it. But in response to that there is always an unpredictable quiver, a twist or a contraction against the grain. I am looking out for this Etreinte, I am searching for it. Sometimes I even anticipate it. That is this project’s challenge, to do and laisser faire…’ Elise Gabriel

Based on the same principle as l’Etreinte, the collection envisaged by Elise Gabriel explores the multiple options that one same implementation can reveal. As a first approach in the exploration process, the chairs and the table in the ‘Liga’ collections illustrate the material’s capacity to form complex and resistant three-dimensional structures. The rushes intersect, blend and combine to gain strength, lift and support a plane.

As a second theme the ‘Perchées’ (Perched) lamps, with their extended, inflated and opalescent volumes, highlight the material’s delicate and light qualities. Each raised bubble of light permits an infinite game of single compositions or clusters.

Finally, a combination of the two previous proprieties, the ‘La Ronde’ (Circular) and ‘L’Oblongue’ (Oblong) console tables, where the greater thickness of the material applied forms a Zelfo casing, which encloses and rigidifies the tripod base.

* Developed in Austria ten years ago, Zelfo is an innovative and patented material which presents the market with a unique combination of ecological, aesthetic and mechanical properties. It is composed of 100% cellulose fibres, rapidly renewable plant extracts (hemp, miscanthus, etc.) and/or cellulose rich waste, like paper or fabric. Zelfo is therefore 100% biodegradable. On leaving the refining factories, the cellulose fibres are submerged in water: they are filtered; ground; then pressed and dried. Once dried, any finish is possible: Zelfo may be shaped into many forms, whilst still retaining its high density (from 0.5 to 1.5g/cm3) and great resistance, as well as it qualities of delicacy, satin-finish and opalescence.

Elise Gabriel is a young French designer, a graduate of the prestigious Ecole Duperré (textile, materials and surfaces department) and Ecole Boulle (Design, product and furniture department), within a third cycle at ENS Cachan, Elise Gabriel is developing a project called ‘Zelfo’s Embrace,’ with Erwan Bouroullec and Benjamin Graindorge as tutors. The ‘Liga’ chair presented at the VIA in January 2010 falls within this.

See also:

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Dune by Rainer Mutsch	Shrink by Nicola Zocca	The Workshop Chair by Jerszy Seymour

steel bench+steel table

Domestic bookcase tree.Veneered solid wood structure.It can be hanged against the wall using two screws.Booktree, will, on its branches, host the Kids..

As a child, I loved to go to story time at the public library. The storyteller would come in costume — typically a supporting character from that week’s story — and a few dozen children and I would gather and intently listen to the tale. I looked forward to story time each week with the same fervor modern children might anticipate a trip to Disney World or meeting Justin Bieber.

I enjoyed the books shared during story time, spending time with other kids, and seeing the storytellers dress up in costume. My favorite part of story time, however, were the stools on wheels.

I now know these stools are called Kik-Steps and they are in many homes and businesses, but at the time I thought they were the most amazing and rare toys found only in my hometown’s public library. As it is with many desirable things, there weren’t enough stools on wheels for every child at story time. You had to get there early to get one. I would dream about them, tell everyone I met about them, and would cry if there weren’t any available by the time we got to story time. You could sit, stand, or push them around — they were magical!

I bought my first Kik-Step when I was 30, and seeing it in my home takes me back to wonderful childhood memories of story time. Even though I bought it for nostalgic reasons, it has surprisingly turned out to be one of the most useful objects in our home.

I use it a few times daily in the kitchen, to reach high shelves. I use it when I need to change light bulbs, dust, and put things away in closets. I’m 5’9″ barefoot and have an arm span of close to 5’11″, so I am genuinely surprised by how often I use it. It also provides a place to sit, if needed. As its name implies, the best thing about the Kik-Step is if your arms are full, you can simply kick it into place and then step right up on it. You don’t have to unfold it or carry it.

I don’t have a lot of things in my home that I purchased on a whim that turned out to be extremely useful. Usually, sentimental purchases fall into the knick knack category and are eventually passed along to someone else to enjoy for a few years. Have you ever made an impulse or sentimental purchase that turned out to have high utility? I’m interested in reading your stories of surprise in the comments.

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As everyone gears up to either attend or hear all about the upcoming Salone Internazionale del Mobile design fair in Milan, one specific planned exhibition has been making the rounds this week. DuPont has partnered with Disney to bring to life “Tron Designs Corian,” which is exactly as it sounds. Though we suppose if you don’t know what Corian is, that part wouldn’t make sense. Here’s DuPont’s website all about the colored solid surfaces. Strangely though, for this odd pairing between the recent reboot movie and mold-able surfaces, there really isn’t much color involved, as you can see in this series of renderings the company has put up on Flickr. Though we suppose maybe the “mold-able” part is what they’re wanting to show off in this case. It’s all a bit odd, and we don’t think we’d want to live in any of the spaces (we’d be too afraid of getting it dirty), but we’d love to see it, if just outside of computer renderings of what they’re hoping it’ll look like come April when the fair kicks off. For further reading, we recommend checking out Designboom, who has lots of great details about the various designers who were hired worked on it.

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