repurposed
Recycled Glassware – Winebottle Vases and Vessels
The TranSglass Recycled Vases and glassware by Emma Woffenden & Tord Boontje are not only beautiful, but also a practical green design solution to the abundance of empty wine bottles out there.
Remember, reuse is better than recycling, and although some energy is used to recreate these works of art, it is most likely less than that of the recycling and manufacturing process. Plus, how cool are these designs? They don’t even need a flower to look good. This is probably why they are in the permanent collection of MoMA New York.
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Remodel, Reuse, Renew and Restore with the RE-Store – Green Home Furnishings
If you are lucky enough to live near the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, or a bit further north in Bellingham, Washington, then you are privileged to have a REStore near you. A home remodel and demolition reclaiming store, they save all of the wonderful things in older homes from landfills. If you are looking for home decor upcycling or reuse ideas or just need that one matching Victorian style crystal door knob or an authentic iron claw-foot bathtub, look no further. They also collect architectural features like mantling, ceiling tiles, fences and handrail posts.
The demolition of a modest 2,000 square foot house generates up to 127 tons of trash. The RE Store can reuse up to 50% of that material and recycle another 48%, leaving a mere 2% to end up in a landfill or incinerator.
I recently stumbled upon all kinds of wonderful items from a condo renovation project of an old high school. They had old basket style cubby bins, lockers and marble topped science tables. A veritable treasure trove of vintage items to be › Continue reading
Repurposing & Upcycling – The Ultimate in Green Recycling is Reuse
Repurposing (also known as upcycling or reuse) is really the best way of taking an existing object (usually no longer suited for its original purpose) and reusing it for another purpose. This can be as simple as creating an art mosaic out of broken dishes, to turning old doors into tables. It can be as creative as you are and just takes some imagination and good ol’ Macgyver skills. Doing this in a pleasing design friendly way can sometimes be a challenge, but here are a few of my favorites that have worked brilliantly both in the visual and the functional uses. First up, some great green home ideas of repurposed furniture, decor and lighting:
Vintage Belt Floor Mat
One of the coolest floor covering/mats i have ever seen. Its made of old leather belts and has a textures and colors that astound me. You can find them at Branch Home, along with a whole lot of other cool designed sustainable items and housewares.
Designer: Inghua Ting
Made from: Vintage leather belts
Price: $688.00
Buy it at: Branch Home
Truck Spring Stools
A wonderful example of an industrial use object repurposed for home use. It has great interesting design with all the charachter of a vintage weathered found object. It wouldn’t work in all homes, but it would look really cool in a few.
Designer: Ken Fulk
Made from: Discarded truck springs
Find it at: Artefact Design & Salvage in Sonoma, California.
[via apartmenttherapy]
Tower Light
Metaform Studio offers great green design by upcycling wooden palates and other materials into lamps and lighting solutions. The light pictured is created by hand from a variety of found wooden palates along with a good design sense. While it might be worthwhile to try this yourself, if you would like to pass up the learning curve and go directly to a elegant professionally re-crafted product, this is your answer.
Designer: Khader Humied
Made from: Found wooden palates
Price: $1,400.00
Buy it at: Metaform Studio
Vintage Automobile Hood Tables
Metal coffee tables repurposed from vintage car and truck hoods are unique, beautiful and have some history. Not something you find everyday, and probably pretty difficult to do yourself, these are not for the amatuer upcycler.
Designer: Joel Hester
Made from: Vintage automobile hoods
Price: $850.00
Buy it at: joelhester.com
Daisy Vase
Repurposing the bic pen is very easy, and considering how many disposible pens there must be out there, its a good candidate. The preceding link shows several uses such as a handle for a set of utensils all the way to dynamic sculpture lighting. I am very impressed by the range of uses people have come up with for this simple and abundent object. The bic pen vase is one of my favorite because it radically changes the use and original form of the pen with very little energy or effort.
Designer: Jim Termeer and Jess Giffin
Made from: disposable Bic pens
Price: $22.00
Buy it at: designboom
Simply Wood Rings – Eco-Concious Jewelry
Simply Wood Rings are some of the most unique and beautifully designed jewelry I have ever come across. With the help of a two apprentices and one office worker, Gustav Reyes employs a relatively cutting-edge method of wood-working to create durable, one-of-a-kind rings. Using bent lamination, a technique used in furniture construction, Gustav cuts thin strips of wood that are then soaked and wrapped rather than carved against the grain. This creates a very durable ring that maintains the structural integrity of the wood and its grain. The ring is then molded, carved, and embellished and finally covered with a lacquered finish. Created from a single piece of wood, these rings are not constructed by a lathe, nor do they have metal inserted to create stability. They can only be made by hand. The wood in the ring is manipulated only to the extent that it is capable of being manipulated; its integrity is never compromised.
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Each piece is crafted from repurposed materials. Salvaged lumber from other artists, wooden objects of personal significance from customers (such as baseball bats or musical instruments) are transformed into unique engagement rings, wedding bands or special gifts.
“I strive to create art with love and an understanding that this love is not a possession but a gift that must be shared. I try to give back to that love by making art not depleting the universe but reshaping one of its greatest gifts-trees. Through the use of wood all the energy, spirit and history of the tree is worked to bring out that beauty.
Art is a pure expression of a life lived without constraints.”
- Gustav Reyes
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Gustav handcrafts every ring to bring out the warmth and honesty of the wood, striving to maintain its original spirit. When you order one of their rings, you know you are getting something that comes only from environmentally and socially conscious sources, something that has been uniquely crafted by hand to bring out the true beauty of each piece of wood.
