Kelly and Stubbs

Pete Kelly and Peter Stubbs have been committed to upcycling since working in Brooklyn in the 1990s. 

This is their made to measure birch ply end bench, for use inside or outside, which was designed to utilize offcut high-grade exterior use ply which was heading to the landfill from a business above their base in Goyt mill, Marple. It features their 'Waterfall' joint which is subtle and very strong. 

Joe Ferriso I

Joe Ferriso explores space through the use of dynamic ply sculptures, in this case, figures.

Brad Whitney

Codex Silenda is crowd funded  five-page laser cut puzzle book designed by Brad Whitney, that you methodically have to solve in order to progress. The book is laser cut from plywood and hand assembled, it is very interesting to see the evolution of this project through the updates to the finished 'product', with all of the problems encountered and solved along the way.

Richard Donachie II

Richard Donachie's modern storage solution is veneered plywood cube forms that are multi functional stools, tables and storage boxes.

Susannah Mira II

Another example of Susannah Mira's sculptural assemblages using plywood, what excites me about sculptural work like this is the possibilities of adaptation and inspiration for furniture design.

Susannah Mira I

Susannah Mira is an American sculptor based in Houston who has been working with forms created by cutting repeat plywood forms using a laser cutter.

My work alters and re-contextualizes common objects and environments, giving form to issues raised by the promises of progress. The resultant sculptural installations rely on recognizable structures in uncommon renderings, employing available materials to highlight different perspectives on themes like fabrication, resourcefulness, and development. By using ordinary materials, the work creates dialogues between mass production and the art object as well as global and domestic economies, offering an at times uneasy commentary on the human capacity to create – as well as endanger – our surroundings. Susannah Mira

Michael Kukla

Michael Kukla  sculpts plywood so that it looks like eroded sandstone.

"Long before I became an artist, I studied geology; for me, the earth isn't simply an obdurate rock floating in space, but a living force, ever in motion. Likewise, I ask myself in my artwork: can a sculpture become something dynamic - can it achieve a fluidity of shape, form, structure? I've spent a lot of time at the ocean shore thinking about how - after thousands, sometimes millions of years - water can transform stone, leaving cavities, crevasses, caves. I greatly compress that passage of time and 'touch' in my work, opening up lattice-like portals and interconnecting, near-intestinal webs where previously was only solid geometry. Artistically, I take on the role of a kind of quiet, unseen, inexorable force. I wonder at the nature of things even as I change them." Michael Kukla

Benno Simma II

Lately Benno Simma's designs have focused on simple components that are light, portable and involve no fixings such as glue, joints or screws. In Bonded loose waffle cardboard is sandwiched between ply and brought together using basic ratchet strapping.

Benno Simma I

Italian musician and designer Benno Simma seems to have lots of fun designing his furniture, in all his pictures he looks happy and amiable. These  images are part of his 'rib chair' and 'six for all' designs that are made from interlocking plywood without any need of glue or screws.

Wu Gengzhen

Wu Gengzhen is very well known in China for his incredible paper cuts, he has been experimenting with plywood to make these two and three dimensional structures. 

Jun Vera

The piece chair is a rocking chair made from four interlocking sections for adults or children designed by Jun Vera

Full Swing Furniture

What started as a workshop to experiment with possibilities for creating a plywood made with a mix of wood and other materials, has lead to the creation of some beautiful furniture made by layering birch and thick paper, with wonderful coloured butt ends. These designs and many others made using 'paper wood' are by Japanese company Full Swing Furniture.

Seugji Mun

I love this project, four (brother chairs) made with no wastage from a single piece of ply all to a different design by Seungji Mun, a great challenge and result.
Thank you 

Gerald Summers

Bent ply furniture from early 20th century designer Gerald Summers who established a company called 'The Makers of Simple Furniture' with his wife Marjory Amy Butcher in 1929 which ran until 1939 when government restrictions on timber importation forced them to close.
The strength of Gerald Summers design was his simplicity and economy of designs, which often meant that there was no wastage. The chair would be formed by a single piece of aeroplane ply, as you can see in the top two images, the ply would be formed from many layers of veneer in which the grain ran in different directions creating integral strength. These were not steam bent, the pliable veneers were sandwiched  together with glue and then placed in a mould whilst still flexible.

"This exceptionally thin and flexible material had a revolutionary impact on Summers emerging style. Whereas Summers had previously worked in a geometric idiom of simple rectilinear forms, with his discovery of aeroplane plywood he began to evolve an organic idiom of curved surfaces and curvilinear outlines, which exploited the inherent capabilities of this pliable material." Martha Deese. Journal of Design History

Gerald Summers work has much in common with Finnish designers Aino and Alvar Aalto's furniture of the same decade.

Paloma's Nest I

 

 

What is wonderful about the designs of Paloma's Nest is there simplicity, multifunctionality and the possibilities that they offer for children and parents for play. The design pictured is called Neighbourhood Chair, a chair that doubles as a dolls house, perfect. (Thank you)

Iwona Kosicka II

Plywood animal rockers designed by Iwona Kosicka, again wonderful designs. Different animal profiles and  a variety of finishes applyed to the plywood.