Undress Brisbane Sustainable Runway

Tags

conscious, consumption, fashion, pallet, recycled, repurpose, runway, sustainable, timber, wood

So this October past I sponsored the second Undress Brisbane event and built them their runway for the fashion show. The idea of the show is to challenge Brisbane fashion consumers to be conscious in the choices they make in fashion. Where was it made, what is it made from, is this just something Im going to wear and then throw away next month cause it is churned out as cheaply and mindlessly as a plastic spoon.  The only way our consumer economy will change is if we the consumers vote with our wallets and demand quality and environmentally conscious products.

 The concept of this project was to create a 20 meter ‘T’ runway out of surplus materials discarded from industry  and repurpose those materials into something new, useful and beautiful.

The timber used to make the flooring was donated by VIP Packaging an Australian packaging company dedicated to developing  innovative and sustainable packaging solutions to product based business’ and companies throughout Australia and New Zealand. The particular material I used for this project was decommissioned pallet caps originally used on top of pallets full of product so that another pallet could be stacked on top without damaging the product below. The timber pallet caps have been replace with plastic ones as the timber ones aren’t durable and need to be replaced regularly because of wear and tear. I broke down the pallet caps, de-nailed and re processed them into a usable material which was utilised in the flooring of the runway.

 The two professional photo’s in the second panel were taken by Salka Photography    The photo in the third panel is by John Pryke

Warning: Organic Materials

Tags

artefact, design, pallets, recycled, rustic, salvaged, set, shack, Theatrical, tree house

As promised here are some photo’s of the EVE set, built for Margi and The Nest as a part of the Metro Arts 2012 independent season.  All photo’s taken by Dane Beesley.

The set was made completely from recycled, found and re purposed materials. The stick balls (thanks to Greg Hatton for sharing your secrets) were made from sticks that were washed up by the river near the workshop after the recent floods. The shack was made from saw mill offcuts destined to be burnt or thrown in land fill, floor boards left over from renovations at the old museum, pine logs from sustainably managed plantations, roofing and framing from Caylamax my local demolition yard. The chair was made from old pallets and an old de upholstered chair (bought from Dakabin trash and treasure). I grew up with the bath tub, It was in my parents rain forest garden and I kept a yabby  farm in it. When it came to collect the bath tub I discovered it was being guarded by a Red Belly Black snake. The chandelier or Shantylier was arranged by the lighting designer, my partner in crime, Genevieve Trace. Oh, and thanks to Steve Henderson for letting me rummage through your retired saw mill to find the stumps. Thanks to everyone who helped me make this happen.

Hope you enjoy 🙂

A.C. Barton

Telephones on the Floor!

Tags

bench, chair, contemporary, cross arms, floor joist, recycled, seat, telephone pole, up cycle

Now that EVE is wrapping up and I have returned from work in Melbourne, I thought i should start to update everyone on a few things I’ve been up to.

This is the new Backwoods bench. Because in the past a lot of the things I’ve been making have taken a small army to move around, I decided it was time to start working on some more manoeuvrable furniture. This little guy is 1m long, 39cm high and 29cm deep. Easy to transport and easy to move around the house. The idea was to use tight hard lines to make a small, solid, contemporary bench. The frame is made of 96 small hardwood blocks milled down from recycled  floor joists and stuck together. The seat top is made from a retired Iron Bark telephone pole cross arm milled into boards. No screws, nails or bolts were used in its fabrication. Enquire within if you would like to add the ‘Telephones on the Floor’ bench to your home.

A.C. Barton

BACKWOODS ORIGINAL

Photos by Dane Beesley

Sustainable A Frames

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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

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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.

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.