Light Green Leaves

Life triumphs over long distance travel!

I brought a couple of sprouted acorns back to France (smuggled in my toiletries bag) from my mother's backyard in Santa Barbara, Ca.  I think they're Valley Oaks, but I'll have to double check (I know the tree from which they fell, and as the saying goes, it was not far). The original leaves withered as the trauma set in. Then, after some time in the sun in some fresh, moist soil and many encouraging words, a pair of soft, fresh, spiny leaves unfurled.

Bou!

There is a new show up at Galerie Kreo in Paris showing new works by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec.  I did a lot of work at UFACTO on prototyping and fabricating the wall mounted lamps and the shelves.  They are both made of molded fiberglass with immense attention paid to the finishes: the lamps are a glossy piano black; the shelves are a grainy, felty, matt charcoal grey.  If you are in Paris go by the gallery and check it out.  I'm very proud to have had a hand in this show.  Not only is Erwan a friend, he is, alongside his brother, one of the most creative and tasteful designers working today.  More here, and here.

Parabolic Pink

I made a couple of these lamps last week at UFACTO.  Named "Parabola" and designed by Pierre Charpin, these pieces are made at UFACTO for Galerie Kreo.  Kreo represents a smattering of high-level designers, mostly from France, and produces pieces that would usually be impossible to fabricate in a large-volume, industrial manner.  This means that the pieces designed for Kreo are usually both quite large (the Parabola stands about 7.5 feet tall, and requires at least that much free wall space to hang) and quite expensive (six digits, in Euros).  Kreo consistently has these pieces, especially the molded fiberglass ones, made at UFACTO.  Each piece is produced in an edition of 12, and sometimes just 1.

The bell is made of two separate fiberglass shells, glued together at the outer edge and at the center.  Quite flexible when separate, the bell stiffens up considerably when both pieces are fixed to each other.  

You might not be able to tell from the image of the finished lamp, but the bell and the stand are not attached.  Rather, the bell, or shade, is fixed to the wall and the bulb stand is stationed in front of it.   Fun fact: the shade of pink was chosen by Charpin to match a faded t-shirt he was wearing while going over the fabrication with David Toppani (master craftsman of UFACTO).  The rosy reflected light is beautiful in person.

Half Pint

I was over at a friend's house the other night for dinner and ended up installing some curtains.  To do the job, I was presented with this charming little chickadee.  I want one.

They All Lived In There

Can someone tell Ringo to move his "ride"?  It's blocking the delivery truck.

Merde

These props are used in water treatment plants in the Ile-de-France region. They are, quite literally, big shit mixers. So, next time you sit down and consider how much you enjoy both the luxuries of modern toilettes and of clean oceans, lakes, rivers, and streams, remember that somewhere, in an anonymous warehouse outside of town, there is a team of highly skilled craftsmen and craftswomen hand moulding precision designed equipment to deal with all that you flush away.

Foam Big, Glass Heavy

For the last few weeks I've been working for UFACTO on an exceptionally large project. So large that it is being built in a workshop about two hours outside of Paris at Poly 2000, a studio that specializes in large, functional fiberglass structures like propellers for the Paris region water treatment facilities, 30+ foot boat hulls, and apparently the odd submarine.

The piece is by Francois Roche, a Paris-based architect, and can best be described as a branchy, apartment-sized, fiberglass asteroid-cave. It is made of polystyrene foam carved mostly by a CNC and by hand in some functionally sensitive zones, wrapped in fiberglass roving and laminated with a special polyester resin that won't dissolve polystyrene foam. It will be painted a glossy white after all the required sanding is done; then it will be shipped in a few containers to Japan where it will stay in sculpture garden. David Toppani carved a slightly smaller one by hand a few years ago for an exibition in France. Quite impressive considering the forms are computer-generated, and quite specific despite the random feel of the form. The above photo is of one of about 17 blocks that fit together to form the final elongated cave which is about the size of a two or three bedroom boxcar apartment with 18 foot ceilings. It will be equipped with a large, flat-screen monitor inside, embedded in a stalactite, and a LED enhanced skylight.


The yellowish color is the filler that gets sprayed over the fiberglass to fill in the fibrous texture before painting. The splotchy green is the fiberglass before the filler is applied. Not very attractive colors at this stage, especially considering the mucousy shape of the thing.   I think the white will improve the overall look of it in the end, but I will probably still think it is not totally my kind of thing. However, I remain thoroughly impressed with the scale and extremity of the design.