Urban Pantry fit out

Tags

cafe, salvaged floorboards, urban pantry

Earlier this month we did a bit of a fit out for  a little cafe in Ipswich Central off Brisbane street called Urban Pantry. We built a 4m suspended bench made from salvaged blue gum floor boards, finished in a durable high gloss and set up a cladded counter also made from salvaged floor boards. I visited Wendy there yesterday to see how things were going and give a final coat of oil to the counter. Urban pantry has now been open for three days and the locals are already all a buzz, they offer gluten free deli products and coffee ground from locally grown beans which Wendy roasts herself. Wendy’s daughter Lisa aka the apprentice, made me  my cap with once sugar and as a self confessed coffee wanker it was a pretty damn good cup.

Backwoods Original… In a Theatre?

Tags

off cuts, saw mill, set design, theatre

I have been lucky enough to be brought onto the amazing team working on EVE as set designer/maker. EVE, by the amazing Margi Brown Ash, is a collaged fictional piece inspired by the fictional writings, personal journals and letters of Eve Langley. Over the next two months you will see alot of entries documenting the design process and hopefully a video of the build… So looking forward to this and feel truly honoured to be working amongst such creative and brilliant people… EVE will open May 9th at !Metro Arts, in the Sue Benner theatre. Watch this space…

MATERIAL HUNT BEGINS

I met a local guy named Steve who used to run a mill… these off cuts would usually get used for fire wood… My mind is in overload! Maybe a treehouse?

Sustainable A Frames

Tags

a frame, recycled, sustainable

I made these A Frames for the local Greens candidate Howard Nielsen, and his 2012 campaign for local government. Soon to have Howard’s face mounted on them, these a frames are made out of 100% recycled hardwood and hinges.

New dressing room table for the !Metro Arts theatre

Tags

bench, dressing room, recycled, silky oak, table, theatre

First of all! I’m not a photographer so excuse these photo’s, the lighting was near nothing and this bench is just over three metres long so it was hard to capture it. That being said, this was one of the more fun projects… It came about through my favourite process of creation, organic design. “We need a dressing room table. These are the materials we have.” Its not necessarily about how beautiful it is but, we need something to do the job, that we don’t need to replace for a long time (ever). To me this simplicity gives a project its beauty. So i went into the “cage” that Metro Arts has out the back and found three awesome bits of Silky Oak for the bench top, some random 2X4 framing pine left over from something or other, and some old Iron Bark floor support beams. The basis for an epic depression era style chunky table was born.

Iron Bench

Tags

Chunky, Garden Bench, Iron Bark, outdoor, re milled, recycled, seat, Telephone poles

This is the finished product prototype from the “progress report” a few posts down. Made out of retired telephone pole cross arms, and reclaimed/re milled Iron Bark. She ways … a lot, 1.5M X .6M in size, finished in raw linseed oil, and held together with 60 galvanised M10 Coach Screws and Bolts. This garden bench is something I’m really proud to add to the BACKWOODS ORIGINAL product range. For orders: go to “ABOUT BACKWOODS ORIGINAL” at the top of the page, and follow the contact information.

Handmade Christmas part 2

This planter box was made for my grandparents. Nan gets a kick out of being able to tell us what on the plate was from her garden… Grandad gets a kick out of getting his hands covered in dirt… Winner

Handmade Christmas Prt. 1

Tags

hanging pots, ladder, pot plants, recycle

Last year my partner Genevieve and i decided we were going to do a handmade Christmas. This was one of the pieces we made, and it ended up going to my Mum and Dad. Gen prepared the ladder and i did the pots and knotting. The ladder was given to me by a friend who had found it at the dump shop and the pots came from the recycle centre.

Cross-Stitch !Metro Arts festival bar… 2011

Tags

bar, recycled

I built this bar late last year for Daniel Santangeli’s Cross-Stitch (You are everything i want you to be) at !Metro Arts. The bar was made completely out of left over sets from the 2011 !Metro Arts  theatre season.

Progress Report

This is a job I’m working on at the moment… The brief was a chunky outdoor garden bench…  100% recycled/re milled Iornbark… The cross arms are from retired telephone poles.

This desk is made of recycled fascia boards for the top and support arms, laminated Tasmanian Oak support beam for the legs, retired fence bits for the feet, and a floor support truss for the brace. No screws or bolts were used in its construction. Finished in natural bee’s wax.