Jul 15
Marcus Daly is a Washington-based carpenter on a mission: to produce the most environmentally friendly handcrafted wooden caskets he can. This short film, by Dan McComb, reveals the beauty of his work.
     |
Jul 05
The easiest joke to make about IKEA is that few of its products—from shelves to meatballs—are made from what they seem. But even particleboard still requires wood—and a lot of it, when you’re selling 100 million products every year.
| |
Jun 28
Building a tower out of Lincoln Logs is one thing. Building a real life, 30-foot high funeral pyre out of actual firewood is a little bit more complicated. With a bit of finesse and a lot of patience, artist Tadashi Kawamata managed to pull off the latter. No smoking in the vicinity, please.
| |
Jun 28
Given that I have no talent in woodworking, I suspect Handibot may – dare I say it? – come in handy. The device is a motorized CNC machine – they’re calling it a Universal Digital Power Tool (UDPT) – for wood. It can cut, machine, drill, and carve. Built by the guys who built the ShopBot, a similarly complex CNC system for woodworking.
The Handibot is basically a 3D cutter. It can create precise cuts in wood or even create complex carvings for molding or decorations. In short, it’s a pocket carpenter.
The product also uses a mobile app to allow users to create various cuts including holes and mortises. You can also download designs from the Internet, creating a sort of reverse Thingiverse.
You can get a Handibot for a $2,700 pledge and they will offer additional bits and accessories that can turn it into a fully-functional shop robot. It’s a lot of money but it’s a pretty complex bit of gadgetry and ShopBot is a solid outfit. They’re looking for a $127,000 goal with $86,000 already raised.
Jun 25
There’s a natural charm to cycling that allows you to feel at one with the environment that surrounds you—but if that’s not enough, maybe you need this bike that’s made from the environment that surrounds you.
| |
Jun 23
No other art form transacts with us the way literature can. It’s very accessible yet it demands and invites us to add depth to the world and the ideas it conjures. Devin Montgomery tries to capture the joy of discovery and exploration that we get from reading with his unique invention. He calls it the Midnight Clock. It’s a functional timepiece, but it also has a secret. If you follow the riddle engraved on its body, you’ll find a hidden book compartment.
The Midnight Clock is made from either birch of bamboo, with a shatterproof acrylic cover and a quartz movement. To reveal the hidden compartment, you have to remove four pegs along with the acrylic cover in the right order. Naturally, you’ll need to decipher the riddle to find out the right order. It’s not hard to solve, but that’s not really the point of the clock.
Pledge at least $85 (USD) on Kickstarter to get a Midnight Clock as a reward. Naturally once you solve the riddle the Midnight Clock’s magic is drained, but I prefer to think of it as a functional and very creative gift wrap. I think it’s a good way of foreshadowing the wonders that await the recipient in the gift itself.
I do find it somewhat of a missed opportunity though. I think that art is man’s attempt to express that which cannot otherwise be shared using words. Which is why I find the writer a very funny and also valiant class of artist: he uses the very thing that he hopes to transcend. It’s like a vaccine, not because it cures something but because of the audacity of its composition. So wouldn’t it be funny if instead of a clock, you had a book that, when read in a certain way, opens up to reveal another book?
Jun 17
Wood is the go-to material when you design speaker enclosures, and these new ones from Neue Werkstatt (German for “new factory”) really let the natural look of wood shine through.
The NW3 speakers are each made by a small carpenters workshop in Germany. The wood used is sustainably-harvested pine, and the interior insulation is made out of a natural wool batting. Surfaces are finished with a solvent-free stain and natural wax, letting the natural woodgrain really stand out. The audio components inside the enclosure come from Danish audio company Peerless.
I haven’t had a chance to listen to the NW3s yet, but I definitely like their style. They look very natural, and offer a nice accent for modern interiors.
[via designboom]
Jun 14
It’s a sad fact that when nature and man collide, nature usually loses. Many of us hate to cut down trees, but sometimes you have no choice. Maybe it is mandated by local authorities or maybe it needs to go because it is in danger of falling. Isn’t it much better to carve a dragon out of that fallen tree, instead of just turning it into firewood? Hell yes!
Redditor Aboiement’s neighbor paid an unnamed artist to sculpt this amazing dragon from the trunk of this deceased tree. It looks awesome and now his front yard is basically a fantasy realm. I bet hobbits and orcs come to fight it in the wee hours when no one is looking. I guess the guy carved this with his magical powers and then just walked off into the sunset, not seeking glory or anything.
One imgur commenter said it best…
“The dragon was always there, he just removed the tree bits.”
[via Nerd Approved]
Jun 05
If you ask me, the market for wireless speakers has really reached a point of saturation. So it really takes a lot for me to write about them anymore – let alone be wowed by one. Well consider me wowed. The Wren V5 speaker is, in my opinion, the most artful wireless speaker I’ve seen so far.
First impressions are huge, and when I took the Wren out of its box and protective wrapper, I was stunned by how beautiful this thing is. This is one of those rare times where the product looks better in person than in its studio photos. Constructed primarily from veneered MDF wood, it looks and feels just so substantial. This is a speaker that would look great sitting on any table or desk, no matter what your design aesthetic is. I personally love the bamboo finish of the speaker I got to test out, but it’s also available in a darker rosewood finish. Dimensions for the Wren are 6-1/8″ (H) x 16-5/8″ (W) and 4-1/4″ (D), and it weighs a hefty 6.6 pounds.
Of course, a speaker is only as good as it sounds. Powered by a 50-watt, DSP-powered class-D stereo amp from Intersil, this thing certainly has plenty of punch to go around. Its powered by two three-inch mid/bass drivers, and a pair of 19mm soft dome tweeters.
In my experience, the Wren produced amazingly solid room-filling sound along with clean, but not overly boomy low-end, thanks to its wooden ported bass cabinet. Cranked up to 100% volume it was loud with virtually no audible distortion, and no clipping that I could hear. It doesn’t hurt that the grill cloth is acoustically transparent, the enclosure is built to minimize unwanted resonance, and it’s set onto an acoustic-damping silicone base. That said, it doesn’t provide any equalization controls, so you’ll want to keep that in mind if you like to fine-tune your speakers.
The Wren can be connected via Wi-Fi, USB or a wired analog audio connection, but unfortunately not Bluetooth. However, the added range and flexibility of Wi-Fi trumps that in my book. Yes, it takes a few extra seconds to establish a Wi-Fi connection rather than Bluetooth, but it’s well worth having the ability to control the speaker from your computer or mobile device, as well as to have multiple devices playing music at the same time. That said, Wren does mention on its website that Bluetooth support is “coming soon.” Though I’m not sure if current owners will be provided with an upgrade path. Once connected, the speaker shows up like any other AirPlay device, and playback can even be controlled via the included remote.
It should be noted that the Wren hasn’t been officially approved by Apple for Lightning Connector devices, but it’s been thoroughly tested and works on the iPhone 5, iPad 4th Gen and iPad Mini. I had a little trouble getting the simple “one button” Wi-Fi connection to work with my iPhone 5, so I had to connect it to my Wi-Fi network via a web browser instead. But that’s no big deal – it takes just a couple of extra seconds, and it’s a one-time operation. In addition, Wren is planning an app to allow for easy Wi-Fi setup as well as for loading firmware updates slated for release late this Summer.
If you use Apple devices, you’ll want to go with the Wren V5AP, which offers AirPlay compatibility – and if you’re an Android user, go with the V5PF, which is compatible with Android 2.2 and later devices, via Play-Fi. Both models of the Wren V5 sell for $399.99(USD) and are available on the Wren Sound System website. As an added bonus, Wren includes an unheard of three-year warranty, so you’re covered if anything goes wrong for quite some time. You can also swap from the iOS to the Android version or vice versa for just $99 – though you’ll get a equivalent quality refurb for that price.
Minor inconveniences aside, I loved the look and the sound of the Wren, and would be happy to have one sitting on my bookshelf.
May 29
I guess you could say that most old arcade machines were made from wood, but it was mostly laminated pressboard, covered with shiny vinyl decals. Designer Love Hultén’s latest arcade build offers a much more timeless wooden styling.
The R-Kaid-42 is a complete arcade console built into an elegant handcrafted walnut wood box. Inside, you’ll find a pair of high quality arcade joysticks and buttons, at the bottom of the stack is a compact PC with an SSD drive for emulating games. The joysticks themselves are wireless, and have solid brass handles and ball tops.
To play, simply detach the magnetic sections of the R-Kaid-42, screw in the joystick handles, and connect it to a VGA monitor and power. The system comes with a clean and minimal front-end for a variety of emulators which can play over 20,000 different games. All of this can be operated entirely using the arcade controls.
Best of all, you can actually buy the R-Kaid-42 for yourself over on Etsy. It’s selling for $970(USD), and while that might seem like a lot of money, I think it’s a steal for all of the work that went into this thing.
Who's in charge here?
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.